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Alright, I thought I'd do a little something on my attempt to ebonize using the steel wool and vinegar method.
The reason I wanted to try this over the Fiebing's dye (that Stew-Mac sells) is that it seemed like a more interesting method that wouldn't be as aggressive to binding and details.
I scoured the Internet, googling and reading all I could find on the subject (and there is a lot out there). However, most sites list roughly the same "recipe", with a few variations thrown in there, like adding rusted nails etc.
I'll link to a few sites and videos that I found useful, and you can read for yourselves and make your own opinion on whether you think this is something worth trying.
My knowledge when it comes to chemistry is absolutely nonexistent, but I have understood that this procedure works by the "iron acetate" (which is what you get when the steel wool and vinegar reacts) reacting with the tannic acid that naturally occurs in wood. Different woods contain different amounts of tannic acid, thus reacting differently.
You can add tannic acid to the piece of wood by brushing a strong solution of black tea to it, but all this is further exaplined in this article and video, which I found very useful:
Here is another article, that also deals with the issue not to contaminate the solution you've made:
This is the only article I've come across to claim that rosewood's not a particularly good candidate for this process due to it not being able to absorb water very well:
This guy on the other hand managed to ebonize a rosewood pen, without even attempting to:
Here is an article using the method for coloring leather:
Another youtube video:
My solution:
So how did it work for me?
Not very well. I was really bummed, because I put a lot of effort and time into this, really hoping that it would work.
I tried my solution on a couple of pieces of oak, which it worked great on. It was awesome to see!
I tried my best to clean and dry out the fretboard beforehand. I cleaned it thouroghly with naphtha, and used a steaming hot wet towel. The fretboard just wouldn't accept the solution. It would seep under the frets, leaving the rest of the wood covered by the solution.
Perhaps I didn't go about this the right way, but I tried to find out exactly how to do it before I started.
Before:
After:
A thing worth noting here is that you really gotta use the right steel wool for this. I had a large pack of "Trollull" 0000 steel wool, which cannot be used for this. I THINK (not sure) the reason why it didn't work is that it's produced in some "water based emulsion" which makes it extremely resistant to corrosion. And I let it sit in the vinegar for over a week.
After searching through every possible store in my town that could possibly carry steel wool, I found a pack of "Liberon" 0000 wool, which I immediately bought and tried, and it worked great. I let it sit for about a week as well (the longer the better)!
I would love if anyone here (I know that Mark, mm2002 had good results with this method) has achieved better results than I did! Feel free to share your experiences with this. And also, if anyone is about to try this, please report back with your progress!
The reason I wanted to try this over the Fiebing's dye (that Stew-Mac sells) is that it seemed like a more interesting method that wouldn't be as aggressive to binding and details.
I scoured the Internet, googling and reading all I could find on the subject (and there is a lot out there). However, most sites list roughly the same "recipe", with a few variations thrown in there, like adding rusted nails etc.
I'll link to a few sites and videos that I found useful, and you can read for yourselves and make your own opinion on whether you think this is something worth trying.
My knowledge when it comes to chemistry is absolutely nonexistent, but I have understood that this procedure works by the "iron acetate" (which is what you get when the steel wool and vinegar reacts) reacting with the tannic acid that naturally occurs in wood. Different woods contain different amounts of tannic acid, thus reacting differently.
You can add tannic acid to the piece of wood by brushing a strong solution of black tea to it, but all this is further exaplined in this article and video, which I found very useful:
Here is another article, that also deals with the issue not to contaminate the solution you've made:
This is the only article I've come across to claim that rosewood's not a particularly good candidate for this process due to it not being able to absorb water very well:
This guy on the other hand managed to ebonize a rosewood pen, without even attempting to:
Here is an article using the method for coloring leather:
Another youtube video:
My solution:
So how did it work for me?
Not very well. I was really bummed, because I put a lot of effort and time into this, really hoping that it would work.
I tried my solution on a couple of pieces of oak, which it worked great on. It was awesome to see!
I tried my best to clean and dry out the fretboard beforehand. I cleaned it thouroghly with naphtha, and used a steaming hot wet towel. The fretboard just wouldn't accept the solution. It would seep under the frets, leaving the rest of the wood covered by the solution.
Perhaps I didn't go about this the right way, but I tried to find out exactly how to do it before I started.
Before:
After:
A thing worth noting here is that you really gotta use the right steel wool for this. I had a large pack of "Trollull" 0000 steel wool, which cannot be used for this. I THINK (not sure) the reason why it didn't work is that it's produced in some "water based emulsion" which makes it extremely resistant to corrosion. And I let it sit in the vinegar for over a week.
After searching through every possible store in my town that could possibly carry steel wool, I found a pack of "Liberon" 0000 wool, which I immediately bought and tried, and it worked great. I let it sit for about a week as well (the longer the better)!
I would love if anyone here (I know that Mark, mm2002 had good results with this method) has achieved better results than I did! Feel free to share your experiences with this. And also, if anyone is about to try this, please report back with your progress!
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