ebonizing questions?

[alex carey]

Can i reuse the steel wool for another batch or can it only be used once?


It seems to be working a lot better and faster on end grain? Why is this? Just because endgrain is more spongelike?

[Peter Fabricius]

You will find that the steel wool disolves in the vinegar and the best you can do is filter the solution into a clean jar.
You can store the solution for a long time and just use it direct from the jar. I have had my jar for about two years and it still works great. Most things work best on end grain but walnut does get nice and black to simulate ebony...
Hope it works well for you.
Peter F.

[Richard Madison]

Alex, If there is some steel wool left you could just add more vinegar to make another batch. Like Peter I filter mine through a coffee filter into a clean jar to work from.

[alex carey]

there was a ton of steel wool left, probably because I put a ton of steel wool in there. Guess ill just put more in there. I filtered it through a shirt, I assume all I was filtering was the little metal scraps?

Any recommendations on how high to sand to? I tried a few things out and it seemed that it worked best on stuff that wasn't sanded at all.

[Richard Madison]

Might take two or three applications with a few minutes in between. On the few I have done it tended to "fuzzy" the surface a little. Resanded lightly w/ 320.