I enjoyed seeing you revisit an older project and give it a little "tweaking." The end result to very pleasing. (I also recognized at once that this had to be an older video at the start, from the neighborhood setting, as well as the passersby wearing masks. Aren't we glad THAT chapter is past!)
Turned out great! 👍👍 Been using Rust Vinegar in combination with a powdered Tannic Acid & Water solution for Ebonizing for years and I love it, bc one it's way cheaper than gel stains, dyes and glazes and two even if you're going for a Jet Black look by doing multiple coats you can still see the grain of the Wood. Edit: Your solution wasn't strong enough, the idea is to let the White Vinegar _completely dissolve_ the Steel Wool, which takes about 1 to 2 weeks or more depending how much Vinegar and Steel Wool you're using and the temperature. For reference you'll know the solution is ready when there is no Steel Wool visibly left in the container beyond small particles in the sludge at the bottom and it should look basically like Liquid Rust in a bottle and there should be a large foamy froth at the top of the container. That's how you know it's ready to use. At that strength on White Oak almost immediately you'd see a shift in color to Black rather than Grey.👌 If anyone is curious about the Tannic Acid solution and what it's for, it's so you can Ebonize any species of Wood. Normally you can't Ebonize Woods like Pine, Poplar, Maple, Ash, Birch, Cherry, Alder, Bamboo etc. with Rust Vinegar, bc they are really low in Tannin content. But if you apply a Tannic Acid solution to the Wood first and let it Absorb in then apply the Rust Vinegar the Wood will Ebonize.
I have watched your channel since the beginning. This desk is my favorite. I like so much that I'm going to do the ebony stain on a tiger grain white oak dresser I'm refinishing right now. I cant wait.
I love what the vinegar and steel wool does. The colour is really beautiful. Not black exactly as you can see every grain in the wood. It looks incredibly natural. X
It’s amazing how a piece of furniture can look like total garbage, but end up being so nice after refurbishing. Nice work. It came out looking beautiful.
This really turned out sleek and beautiful. I’m not always a fan of ebonized wood, but it definitely upgrades this desk. I love the wood grain on the top, and the new pulls look great.
The original video was the first one of yours that I watched, really enjoying seeing it get completed! This was my introduction to ebonizing, until that point I had only seen oak turning black as a bad thing happening to my kitchen counter. Luckily you showed oxalic acid fixing that in other videos, so I was able to deal with those as well!
Totally gorgeous! Wish you could see the hand made desk that I have made of plywood! Sooo yucky…square corners ect. Yours for a “roadside” find is marvelous. You are a magician with wood.❤. Love watching
Thanks so much for the detail of applying the veneer to the top. I need to do a laminated dresser top and had no clue. Desk turned out awesome, especially considering the initial price!
Beautiful! I had great luck with this technique on a 10' stretch of oak butcher block. Beefed up the tannins with some strong tea before applying the vinegar solution. Topped with numerous coats of tung oil -- very pleased with the result.
When you said you'd never done ebonizing I thought. "Yes you have! I learned this from you." I swore made my desktop from oak plywood and ebonized it like this after watching your video. Then you said you were going back to an old project and I realized I hadn't gone crazy.
That actually came out better than I thought it was going to, good job on it. I'm going to have to try the ebonizing trick sometime. Keep doing you and stay safe 💯😁
Beautiful work. I liked the original and wouldn’t have changed it, but what you did is beautiful, and after seeing it, I would have wished that I’d changed it as you did. 😊🤪👍👍
If you use a 7° bevel flush trim bit, like used for Formica you can just set it deeper to compensate for the radiused edge. It also doesn't leave a sharp corner that needs softening with a sanding block.
You can use a paint roller to apply contact cement. Tends to go on a little less gloopy than with a brush, as well as faster. I notice you didn't use the water based contact cement, which is good because that shit doesn't stick. You heard it here first. When using a piece of tape for a drill depth stop you can leave the tape sticking out, like a flag--this will start sweeping away the wood dust brought out of the hole when you get to the right depth--very accurate. Looks nice.
My dad had a toolbox he used a blowtorch to char the outside, it makes a neat pattern with the way the grain darkens unevenly. If you combined that with the vinegar method it might make for an interesting look.
It's vinegar + iron = iron acetate. This, with the tannins in the oak, precipitates out as a black version of iron (Fe III, I think). The more tannins or the stronger the iron acetate, the faster you get to black. If you have low-tannin wood, you can apply a separate tannin solution. This is sold as a natural dye called "quebracho". Or you can use any high tannin vegetation and brew up a tea: acorns, black tea, mesquite bark, hickory bark, etc. Swab it on and then apply the vinegar/iron stuff
Ebonizing is about the only way to get a nice black-ish stain on oak (aside from gel stains). I've done the ebonizing trick on an oak side table I picked up at the thrift store. The oak was pretty resistant to the color change and got really splotchy. I found if I took about 5 or 6 tea bags and boiled them in about a cup (230ml) of water, the resultant super tea after applied to the wood and dried had enough tannins in it to react with the vinegar ebonizing solution. The color was very delicate, however, so I covered it with shellac and wax as soon as possible. It developed a nice natural warm tone to the black over the next year or so and I really like it. Edit: The desk is gorgeous, by the way. Good job!
I love how this turned out, but wait a minute. What about the piece you did in your May 7, 2022 video? You were the first person I ever saw using this interesting technique.
Im guessing the vinegar dissolved iron from the steel wool, and painting it on caused the vinegar/iron solution to absorb into the woods pores. When the vinegar evaporated, it left behind the iron, which was now exposed to oxygen. The iron rusted into Fe3O4, or black iron oxide, but the oxide was inside the wood pores already so it acted as a stain. You basically injected rust into the wood. Cool technique.
I’ve only watched a few of your videos. What do you do with your furniture pieces? I’m not a fan of black furniture but I realize everyone is different. Did you consider having a contrasting color on the drawer pulls? IMO it would have made it pop. None of this is an insult. Just hoping to get a feel for your thought process 😊
Oh wow!! This is stunning! 😍 I love that dark look, and it’s not chalky looking with that topcoat. Also, I was wondering how long does the smell of vinegar take to go away on a piece like this? 🤔😆
