Ebonising wood

[Basilg]

Had it at the back of my mind for a long time to make a Greene & Greene style piece of furniture, & recently prompted by a friend, started thinking about ebonising wood to use as a replacement for Ebony.

Then I had the thought this would make an interesting thread.
What woods have forumites used? What process did you use e.g. vinegar and iron, or other ? How successful were you in getting a deep black even colour ? and how many coats of the ebonising fluid did you use to get there ?

I have in the past used a handful of wire wool covered with vinegar in a glass jar and left for a few days with the lid loose to allow gases to escape. Then strained the liquid and applied several coats until I get a reasonable black.

Oak works well but you still have the fairly open grain. Brigalow I found good as it is tight grained & looks very much like ebony, but it took a dozen or so coats as the colour came off easily when sanding to take off the raised grain prior to finishing.

What success have others had ?

Regards

[Christos]

I was mucking around with the home brew of vinegar and steel wool. I used it for a lamp that I made.

http://www.woodworkforums.com/f40/wip-lamp-two-104582/

I used tea before applying the ebonising solution.

After this had dried I sealed this with clear estapol.

[Rattrap]

I also tried my hand at ebonising for Green & Green style square plugs in a cabinet i was making for the missus. I tried Tas oak, Blackwood & myrtle, i used the steelwool & vinegar both with plain timber & timber that had been presoaked in strong tea. I could never get the deep black effect i was looking for also polishing the endgrain to get the high shine from the plug always removed most of the ebonising & without polishing the ebonising treatment always raised the grain leaving a very dull effect. In the end i lashed out & bought the real deal, it really was a case of chalk & cheese. Real ebony is IMO so vastly superior, i am yet to see an ebonising treatment that will stack up to Ebony however i would be very happy to be proved wrong if somebody has ever had better success.

[planemaker]

Merbau is an ideal timber to use for iron oxide ebonising due to it high tannic acid. I have used it many times with very good results.

Stewie.

[Bushmiller]

Basilg

I had to look up Greene and Greene furniture not being familiar with it, but already I like it.

Is ebonising a technique or are you happy to just make it look the same as ebony? I had a similar issue when trying to reproduce Gerrit Rieldfeldts Red Blue chair. I wanted to use the same method as he had back in 1923. The armrests and frame were not painted but stained black. The yellow, red and blue were all painted.

I bought two products for staining by Feast Watson. Prooftint and Black Japan. Trouble is I can't remember which I used in the end and indeed this may not be the effect you are chasing. My timber was recycled ironbark, the grain is just visible through the stain and conventional varnish was applied over the top. An oiled finish could be applied instead.

There is the barest reddish hue if you look carefully similar to the redness that Black Angus get during the winter. This will not be much help to you if you have never seen an Angus steer:wink:.

If you enlarge the picture you may just get an impression of the red showing though, but my photography skills are insufficient to show the grain.

Regards
Paul

[Artesano]

I find Sapele perfect for ebonizing - deep, black colour , sometimes looking slightly metallic:

http://www.woodworkforums.com/f10/new-work-114438/


http://www.woodworkforums.com/members/17427-artesano/albums/artesano-s-album/3862-2008-0930fotos-20090049.jpg

[Basilg]

Thanks everyone for your input on this.

Based on this input, & information I have obtained elsewhere, I summarise -

Ebonising - I would define as actually changing the colour of the wood fibres, as opposed to coating the wood in a coloured pigment

Wood species suitable for ebonising are those with a high tannin content.

Examples of these would include Oak, Walnut, Kwila, South American Mahogany, Brigalow.
Species with tight grain are most suitable to give an appearance of Ebony.

The ability of a wood to change its colour to that of ebony can be improved by coating the wood in a liquid high in tannin, such as a strong solution of Tea, or Logwood extract.

After drying, this is then followed by coating the wood in a solution obtained by mixing iron & vinegar in a glass jar & leaving this for a few days until this stops gassing off, & straining the solution through a paper filter. Wire wool is commonly used for this process and it may firstly require washing in detergent or solvent to remove any protective oil or wax. CAUTION should be used to ensure gases generated are properly vented to atmosphere.

After drying apply your chosen finish

Before ebonising sand to 240 grit then raise the grain with plain water and sand this back by sanding lightly with 320 grain. It can be counterproductive to sand too finely as burnishing of the surface may retard the absorption of the solutions.

There is variation of the colour even in one species, in one sample of Mahogany I used I found a distinct difference in colour between the early and late wood.

Of the species I tried Kwila gave the darkest colour but a more pronounced grain than true ebony whereas Brigalow looked more like ebony but required more coats of solution.


I hope others find this information useful and would appreciate useful information others can provide.

Regards

[sjm]

Thanks for the nice summary. Duly copied and pasted to my local archive ;)