[email protected] wrote:
> I've heard that you can mix steel wool with a couple of other things to
> create a nice dark rich black like substance that can be applied to
> wood like a stain. Has anyone heard of this, and if so do you know the
> other ingredients and proportions? Thanks!
Rusty steel wool, or rusty steel anything steeped in vinegar
will produce a liquid that turns oak black.
I haven't been able to get it to work very well for me.
--
FF
Mineral spirits, cigarette ashes, makes a charcoal stain. Applying with
steel wool pad, sitting in a plate of vinegar, further darkens. Don't
smoke? ashes from a burnt branch, or charcoal do about the same.
On Nov 11, 6:43 pm, "DanG" <[email protected]> wrote:
> I have made and used stain by dissolving (soaking until the liquid
> is saturated with iron) nails in vinegar. I'm sure steel wool
> would work even faster. It is an interesting color.
> ___________________________
> Keep the whole world singing. . . .
> DanG
>
> <[email protected]> wrote in messagenews:[email protected]...
>
>
>
> > I've heard that you can mix steel wool with a couple of other
> > things to
> > create a nice dark rich black like substance that can be applied
> > to
> > wood like a stain. Has anyone heard of this, and if so do you
> > know the
> > other ingredients and proportions? Thanks!
[email protected] wrote:
> [email protected] wrote:
> > I've heard that you can mix steel wool with a couple of other things to
> > create a nice dark rich black
> Rusty steel wool, or rusty steel anything steeped in vinegar
> will produce a liquid that turns oak black.
Vinegar (or oxalic acid) will weakly etch iron forming unstable
compounds
in solution; time or light exposure will break these compounds down, so
they have to be mixed up fresh.
The reaction with tannin (which is present in oak and some other woods)
precipitates
small iron particles which quickly form black iron oxide (hematite).
The solution
can diffuse into the wood cells, so the color is actually inside the
surface
wood fibers, and it looks different from any applied black pigments.
There is a variant of this process that uses macerated oak-tree gall,
which produces
oak-gall ink (the standard ink of the nineteenth century and before).
thanks for the posts guys.
dan what was the wait time for your nails & vinegar mix?
[email protected] wrote:
> I've heard that you can mix steel wool with a couple of other things to
> create a nice dark rich black like substance that can be applied to
> wood like a stain. Has anyone heard of this, and if so do you know the
> other ingredients and proportions? Thanks!
I have made and used stain by dissolving (soaking until the liquid
is saturated with iron) nails in vinegar. I'm sure steel wool
would work even faster. It is an interesting color.
___________________________
Keep the whole world singing. . . .
DanG
<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> I've heard that you can mix steel wool with a couple of other
> things to
> create a nice dark rich black like substance that can be applied
> to
> wood like a stain. Has anyone heard of this, and if so do you
> know the
> other ingredients and proportions? Thanks!
>
[email protected] wrote in news:1163291784.192447.222600
@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:
>
> I've heard that you can mix steel wool with a couple of other things to
> create a nice dark rich black like substance that can be applied to
> wood like a stain. Has anyone heard of this, and if so do you know the
> other ingredients and proportions? Thanks!
>
I thried this several weeks ago when I asked about "ebonizing" walnut. It
gave a black tint that tended towards grey. Even soaking the piece did not
give a true black. Something that worked quite well was a Marks-A-Lot
marking pen. This gave a true deep dark black, very much like ebony. It's
great for small pieces, but can be tricky (and expensive) with anything
very large. Once dry it seems impervious to solvents and takes shellac and
water-based poly without streaking or smearing.