Ebonizing Wood - Article by Brian Boggs
BobS
excellent tutorial by Brian Boggs in the June issue of Popular
Woodworking on page 40.
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/Ebonizing_Wood
I was requested to build an urn for my brothers dear old black lab that
recently passed away. Her fur was black as coal and shined like black
chrome in the sunlight. I was saving a nice plank of curly maple for
something special and this certainly qualifies as special in my book.
Made the box and pondered how to finish it - wanted to do something
extra special. Black fur, Brain's article on ebonizing and I had my
answer. I can't give all the details of the article (copyright) but my
results from following Brian's tutorial exceeded my expectations.
Sure, the pictures in the article show a deep rich black finish that
only a pro could achieve - so I thought....
Ordered the 2lb package of quebracho extract from Van Dyke's Taxidermy
( www.vandykestaxidermy.com ) and bought a quart of a national,
name-brand white vinegar that Brian insists is the best one to use.
Brian suggest several methods for making the iron mixture and I choose
the steel wool route. Took a fresh 0000 pad and cleaned it with hot
water and soap to get rid of any oil and rinsed it. Poured the vinegar
into a quart jar and tossed in the steel wool pad.
Let that dissolve / rust for a week or so and then strain the mixture
thru a coffee filter. Brian suggests a faster, 1 day method but
nothing you want to do indoors he say's in the article.
Come the day to apply the magic potions and I made sure that the wood
was wetted and sanded (to 320 grit) several times so as to avoid
raising the grain again after applying the quebracho extract mixture (1
heaping tblspn to 1 pint warm water). Again, Brian goes into excellent
detail on how to apply and what not to do and I did exactly what he
said not to do. I contaminated the mixture and had to start over.
I coated the whole box in separate sections (top, bottom and the
assembled box) with the quebracho extract mixture (bark tea) using a
nylon sash brush and let it soak in for 30-40 minutes. You want the
chemical reaction to happen down in the wood fibers as Brian say's in
the article, and not like ink laying on the top. After a good soaking
with the bark tea, I made sure the wood was still damp but no puddles
of water spots.
Time to apply the iron mixture. Be sure you don't rub the wood surface
during any of this - you want to avoid burnishing the wood. Again I
used a nylon sash brush to apply the iron mixture. The chemical
reaction is immediate and within 30 seconds or so, you will have a
black surface - maybe not so good looking at first but give it time and
be sure you coat everything.
Let everything dry and buff it all with a clean cloth. At this point
you are probably saying "where's that deep rich black look he was
promising?". It's there, just need to apply another coat of the
quebracho extract (no iron mixture this time) and wash the surface with
it. Blot off any puddles and let it dry. Buff one last time and be
ready to be amazed !
Swipe some mineral spirits on to clean the piece and see how it will
look with your favorite finish....damn, that is really, really black. I
mean, no bluish tint at all and it is simply a gorgeous deep black. I
don't have access to any binary groups or I would post a picture but
the picture on the Popular Woodworking site of Brian's chair
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/Ebonizing_Wood gives you a
pretty good idea of how it looks.
I did some further testing on some scraps. I wanted to see how far it
really penetrated the fibers or was this just a stain laying on the
surface. I can assure you that by following Brian's directions and
allowing the bark tea to soak in, it goes deep. After some hand
sanding with various grits, I was no where near bare wood. Finely took
some 80 grit and my ROS and about 5 minutes sanding on a 10" square
piece of maple scrap to get to bare wood. There were still streaks in
the curly sections that were grayish / black. So this is definitely
not a surface treatment and definitely a process worthy of your time if
you're looking to ebonize some wood.
I sent Brian a thank you note for such an excellent tutorial. It's dead
simple, extremely low cost (~$7USD for the quebracho extract ) and the
cost of a quart of vinegar and a steel wool pad (or some rusty old
nails....).
I tried the process on some small samples of pine, (not so good) but on
hardwoods like maple, walnut, oak and ash it worked nicely.
Should you be interested, Brian's site can be found here...
www.brianboggchairs.com
No affiliation, just a happy camper.
Bob S.
SonomaProducts.com
BTW, the link is missign an 's' should be www.brianboggSchairs.com
On Aug 11, 11:07 am, "BobS" <no-s...@noplace.com> wrote:
> For those that may be interested in ebonizing wood, there is an
> excellent tutorial by Brian Boggs in the June issue of Popular
> Woodworking on page 40.
>
> http://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/Ebonizing_Wood
>
> I was requested to build an urn for my brothers dear old black lab that
> recently passed away. Her fur was black as coal and shined like black
> chrome in the sunlight. I was saving a nice plank of curly maple for
> something special and this certainly qualifies as special in my book.
>
> Made the box and pondered how to finish it - wanted to do something
> extra special. Black fur, Brain's article on ebonizing and I had my
> answer. I can't give all the details of the article (copyright) but my
> results from following Brian's tutorial exceeded my expectations.
> Sure, the pictures in the article show a deep rich black finish that
> only a pro could achieve - so I thought....
>
> Ordered the 2lb package of quebracho extract from Van Dyke's Taxidermy
> (www.vandykestaxidermy.com) and bought a quart of a national,
> the picture on the Popular Woodworking site of Brian's chairhttp://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/Ebonizing_Wood gives you a
BobS
"SonomaProducts.com" <bwx...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:f5ce39dd-aa5b-4325...@l5g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
Very cool. Great sounding technique. Thanks.
BTW, the link is missign an 's' should be www.brianboggSchairs.com
Hmmmm.... made an earlier post saying Thanks for catching my error on
Brian's web site address but it hasn't shown up. I said I would write
his address 100 times on the blackboard for screwing it up. One more
time....
1. http://www.brianboggschairs.com/
.
.
.
.
.
.
99. http://www.brianboggschairs.com/
100. http://www.brianboggschairs.com/
Larry Jaques
<no-...@noplace.com> scrawled the following:
>For those that may be interested in ebonizing wood,
Does he use paint, or just a suitably long application of fire?
--
"Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free
than Christianity has made them good." --H. L. Mencken
---
dpb
...
> I sent Brian a thank you note for such an excellent tutorial. It's dead
Plus he's a nice guy. Never been disappointed in anything he's said or
written I've tried. Went by shop years ago while he was still in Berea
between son in N Ky and we in E TN...
--