HUGE Problems Using Vinegar / Steel Wool / Tea to make wood look weathered

[Curt Harms]

What Wayne said. I've sprayed a water solution of tannin on boxes prior to fuming them with ammonia. Makes a nice brown color. The water solution of tannin becomes moldy pretty quick although I've never timed it so don't know if 3 weeks is ok or not.

This might be the trick for Dustin. He's using resawn 2 X 4 s which I doubt has much in the way of tannins.

[Ken Barney]

Dustin, while I am no means an expert, I have ebonized some cherry using the white vinegar & steel wool mixture you speak of, but no tea. The solution was wiped on using multiple staining cloths, and the outcome was very successful. The cherry was almost black.

While researching the ebonizing process I seem to remember reading that getting "too much" of the wood tannin in the ebonizing mixture would contaminate it and eventually render it useless. I remember that point because I went through a lot of t-shirt material during the ebonizing process. The instructions that I read said never use a brush because the subsequent "dips" into the ebonizing solution would contaminate it.

If you are using a "bath" in a dipping process, could it be that each piece that you dip just contaminates your mixture more? That would certainly explain why your test (first) pieces comes out fine, while the following pieces don't.

Just a thought...,

--Ken

[Ken Barney]

Dustin, while I am by no means an expert, I have ebonized some cherry using the white vinegar & steel wool mixture you speak of, but no tea. The solution was wiped on using multiple staining cloths, and the outcome was very successful. The cherry was almost black.

While researching the ebonizing process I seem to remember reading that getting "too much" of the wood tannin in the ebonizing mixture would contaminate it and eventually render it useless. I remember that point because I went through a lot of t-shirt material during the ebonizing process. The instructions that I read said never use a brush because the subsequent "dips" into the ebonizing solution would contaminate it. Which makes me question the tea that you add to the mixture? Tea itself contains tannin?

Anyway, if you are using a "bath" in a dipping process, could it be that each piece that you dip just contaminates your mixture more? That would certainly explain why your test (first) pieces comes out fine, while the following pieces don't.

Just a thought...,--Ken