Ebonizing alder schedule

[Bud McCreadie]

Just prepped for finish two alder saddle stools for my son's new house. I had planned on finishing with shellac and a brushed polyurethane top coat. Sadly, DIL said just paint them black for decor versatility. Horrors!

Got to thinking about ebonizing processes so I surfed and came up with rust water, leather dye and india ink methods. The rust water over tea stained alder turns gray. India ink seems popular so I just got an ounce to do some testing.

This is what I'm thinking: 2-3-coats of ink to cover, 2 coats 1# cut shellac flakes (amber or blond ?), top coat with 3-4 coats brushed Gen. Fin. HP polyurethane.

I plan on raising the grain and smoothing once or twice before applying the india ink. Also would go over 2 shellac app. with 320 sponge before applying poly.

Your thoughts and help on this 1st try at "ebonizing" anything is greatly appreciated.

[Bud McCreadie]

Had a change of plan. I didn't like the india ink on the alder. Just too much black and not enough grain showing. That left me with the black leather dye. I went to Walmart and got two 3 1/2oz. bottles of Kiwi leather dye, black, and tried it. Test pieces showed two coats was too much black while one coat was perfect for the look I wanted. I covered that with a coat of shellac and then two coats of water based polyurethane. Looks very good so I'll go with it. Thanks for your interest.