With the long weekend going on I've had some time to finish some of those
projects scattered all over the shop. Had so many, I couldn't remember
which ones were glued up and which were still dry fitted! Anyhow, several
were mission pieces i decided to fume. In between taking one piece out of
the tent and adding another i just grabbed a piece of cherry to cover the
bowl of ammonia. The cherry covered the bowl for about 12 hrs. or so. When
i removed the board, i found a perfect circle of deep reddish brown color
that is just beautiful. I wiped some BLO on half of the board to reveal a
great warm finish that shimmers in the light. Last night, i put a few more
test pieces of cherry in the tent with another mission piece. So far, the
oak looks great, but the cherry has just turned an ugly pale color. I've
also just finished making the vinyard table featured in this months FWW (
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pages/bw0003.asp ) out of cherry
and would love to try fuming this thing if it will take the same color of my
cherry bowl cover. I just used "janitorial grade" ammonia , cuz that's all
i could find in this town so far. Would a stiffer concentrate help much?
I've DAGS with no real good info about this. Has anyone had success fuming
cherry? I know it doesn't have the tannins that oak does, but it sure will
darken very nicely under the right conditions. I'm just not ready to stuff
the whole table in the tent to end up with an ugly pale table in the end.
I'm really looking foward to powering down the big iron, letting the dust
settle, grabbing a cold one(s) and putting the finish on a few peices
tonight. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, --dave
P.S. I dropped my old Bosch 1587 Jig saw on the shop floor the other day
and broke the foot. I wasn't to upset by this, as it was getting pretty
ragged after 4 years of hard use and was going to be the next tool to be
retired. Dropped by the BORG and grabbed the Bosch 1590 yesterday. After
playing with it for a while, it's proved to be quite an upgrade to the 1587,
and I'd guess other manufactures will soon be copying it's design just as
they did on the 1587. Everything is tooless. I wasn't to fond of the knob
used to change the blade on the 1587 and it wore out after a couple of years
use. The 1590 just has a lever you slide and the blade ejects out. The
foot is adjusted easily by pulling a lever and setting the angle you want
and locking it back down. Simplicity. The "precision control" is merely a
set of guides (sort of like band saw guides just on a smaller scale and not
adjustable) I found this is not 100% effective at preventing blade runout,
but definately an improvement worth adding. The manual says the guides are
for straight cutting, but i cut the long oval for the vinyard table top with
the guides engaged. Worked like a dream. If a smaller circle is cut using
the guides, they automatically disengage. The saw also has about a 12 foot
cord which is real nice! If you currently have the 1587, i wouldn't just
toss it and go out to buy the 1590, but if you need a replacement or new JS
the 1590 is worth the extra $30 above the 1587. --dave
You might also try using a solution of water with sodium hydroxide (e.g.
Red Devil Lye). This is also supposed to darken cherry. Be very careful
with lye, as it can cause nasty burns if it gets on your skin. Always
add the lye slowly to the water, as the addition will cause a
significant heat release. I wonder if using a less alkaline agent, such
as sodium carbonate, would work? It's available as PH + for pools.
-Peter
On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:54:24 GMT, "Dave Jackson" <[email protected]> wrote:
...snip
>P.S. I dropped my old Bosch 1587 Jig saw on the shop floor the other day
>and broke the foot. I wasn't to upset by this, as it was getting pretty
>ragged after 4 years of hard use and was going to be the next tool to be
>retired. Dropped by the BORG and grabbed the Bosch 1590 yesterday. After
>playing with it for a while, it's proved to be quite an upgrade to the 1587,
>and I'd guess other manufactures will soon be copying it's design just as
>they did on the 1587. Everything is tooless. I wasn't to fond of the knob
>used to change the blade on the 1587 and it wore out after a couple of years
>use. The 1590 just has a lever you slide and the blade ejects out.
'fraid this is one area where Bosch is the follower, not the leader.
Milwaukee has the tool-less blade changing feature for a while. It is very
handy.
>
"Peter De Smidt" <pdesmidt*no*spam*@tds.*net*> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> You might also try using a solution of water with sodium hydroxide (e.g.
> Red Devil Lye). This is also supposed to darken cherry. Be very careful
> with lye, as it can cause nasty burns if it gets on your skin.
I put a piece in a solution of 50% sodium hydroxide. Took less than a
second to darken!. More dilute I'm sure you'd have better control. Take
precaustions as it can burn.
http://www.octavia.net/9thclife/Lye.htm
http://www.epa.gov/grtlakes/seahome/housewaste/house/lye.htm
You can even make your own:
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_ashlye.html
Ed
In article <[email protected]>,
"Dave Jackson" <[email protected]> wrote:
> The cherry covered the bowl for about 12 hrs. or so. When
> i removed the board, i found a perfect circle of deep reddish brown color
> that is just beautiful. I wiped some BLO on half of the board to reveal a
> great warm finish that shimmers in the light. Last night, i put a few more
> test pieces of cherry in the tent with another mission piece. So far, the
> oak looks great, but the cherry has just turned an ugly pale color.
Fumed cherry is one of my all time favorites. I'm thinking the bowl
cover was subjected to a much stronger fuming concentration than the
test pieces in the tent. I'd recommend looking for the more concentrated
24%-28% ammonia.
When I fume cherry, I use 26% (or 28%) that I picked up years ago at a
blueprint shop. Even at that concentration, I generally leave the fuming
process to do it's thing for at least 12 hours and sometimes up to 18
hours. For your more dilute solution, you may have to let it go for 2 or
3 days. Test on some of the same scrap from the table to find the right
time. Also, the cherry does look grayed and pale-ish when removed from
the tent, but comes alive when an oil finish is applied - so judge the
time test results after a finish coat.
The lye suggestion works too. Go with a pretty dilute solution, wipe it
on and then neutralize it - I believe dilute lemon juice works. It may
take several applications to get the color you're looking for, but it
does work to darken cherry. The major drawback to this method is that
the water solution will raise the grain which will need to be cut back
after the process.
To paraphrase Paully Rad, "Test, test, test - or you'll be sorry."
--
Owen Lowe and his Fly-by-Night Copper Company
____
"Sure we'll have fascism in America, but it'll come disguised
as 100% Americanism." -- Huey P. Long