Walnut into wenge: ebonzing?

[Ollie McDottie]

Hello everybody.

I’m making a chair for a client who has very dark stained furniture throughout her house. However I’m personally not a fan of staining for a variety of reasons. So I showed her some pictures of wenge, which is a pretty perfect match to her existing pieces.

The design will require some very stout stock, 10/4 or 12/4 even and I’m having difficulty sourcing any wenge over 8/4. Moreover it’s super expensive and apparently quite difficult to work with. Rough on blades, etc. NB: I have personally never used the stuff, so if I’m wrong on any of these points please let me know.

My favorite and most commonly used lumber is walnut. And I got a Couple of huge 12/4 boards recently that I was hoping to use for this job until she said it wasn't dark enough. So I’m Thinking about ebonIzing The walnut. However, I don’t want it to look black, but just super dark brown — Like wenge. What are thoughts/experience with this sort of thing? Alternative methods, materials, lumber/techniques?

Thank you in advance. I look forward To the excellent suggestions I always receive from this community.

[Mike Henderson]

I've used wenge - it's not all that hard to work. Can you purchase thinner stock than 10/4 or 12/4 and glue up what you need? If the client wants wenge, give her wenge.

If the design would allow it, you can veneer some other stock with wenge veneer.

Mike

[Ollie McDottie]

Good to know about wenge not being difficult to manage.

It’s not that she wants wenge in particular. She just wants a dark look to the wood. And wenge seemed to me to be closest in darkness to what she already has, which is all stained with some sort of Kona or similarly super dark finish.

Reason for thickness of stock requirement is that I will be doing a bent lamination for chair parts, and the final dimension will be quite thick, and the bends will be somewhat extreme. So I’ll need to make strips pretty thin.

[Jim Becker]

Dying/staining walnut might get you there in the moment, but do keep in mind that walnut gets lighter over time. I'm not sure if that will ultimately affect the end product. It would be helpful to see some photos of an existing piece of furniture (color corrected if possible) to see the degree of darkness you are speaking about as well as the grain pattern if that matters to the client.

[Mike Henderson]

Good to know about wenge not being difficult to manage.

It’s not that she wants wenge in particular. She just wants a dark look to the wood. And wenge seemed to me to be closest in darkness to what she already has, which is all stained with some sort of Kona or similarly super dark finish.

Reason for thickness of stock requirement is that I will be doing a bent lamination for chair parts, and the final dimension will be quite thick, and the bends will be somewhat extreme. So I’ll need to make strips pretty thin.

Wenge may not be great for bent laminations. If you decide to go with wenge, I'd recommend cutting a few test pieces and see if they will bend to the radius you want.

Mike

[Jamie Buxton]

If you're going to stain the heck out of the lumber, and if you're going to be doing extreme bending, you might start with ash. It bends very nicely. It is half the cost of walnut, and a quarter the cost of wenge. And it will do as well as anything else as a substrate for really dark stain/paint.

[Steve Jenkins]

My biggest complaint with wenge is you can’t hardly look at it without getting splinters. I’ve done some bent laminations with no problem but nothing radical. The first time I used it years ago I needed quite a bit of 8/4 for table edgebanding and when I cut it it was almost straw colored in the middle. Totally freaked me out but almost overnight it darkened up.

[Andrew Seemann]

Walnut is high tannin and can be turned black with steel wool & vinegar, though you might need to add even more tannin to the walnut to get it fully black. It may turn more purple or brown with its natural tannin content; then again, that sounds more like what you want. Unlike stain, this will penetrate slightly in the wood and will be more durable, although it can be sanded through, so do it after the final sanding.

Search for ebonizing oak/walnut on the interwebs. There are a fair number of recipes out there. It will likely take some experimenting to get what you want.

[John K Jordan]

My biggest complaint with wenge is you can’t hardly look at it without getting splinters. .

I'm in the camp that dislikes wenge, partially for the splinters and also I'm not wild about how it looks when turned. I have wenge and I use it for things like blocks in a press and spacers. I'm almost out since I've given away most of it.

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

I'm glad Jamie mentioned ash...that was actually my first thought here, but I failed to mention it. His reasoning is very sound...bends beautifully, and can be ebonized or "esspresso-ized" very easily and effectively.

[Stan Calow]

Is Transtint black dye not a good choice?

[John TenEyck]

I, too, think Glenn's recommendation is spot on. But if you want to use walnut, Transtint Dark Walnut dye will make it as dark as you want without masking the grain. And it will stay dark if you use a varnish with a good dual UV package in it.

John

[Jamie Buxton]

Is Transtint black dye not a good choice?

It seems like the OP wants a color that is more like dark brown, not black.

[Josko Catipovic]

If the OP is not a fan of staining, options are kind of limited.

[Ollie McDottie]

Thank you all for these excellent suggestions. When I'm next at the house, I will take pictures of the furniture to show how dark it is. I have had good experiences with dye stains in the past. Might give that a shot. I like the ash suggestion as well. Easy to get out here and good to work with. When I told a friend about this job and thought about using wenge, he immediately went sour and said, "wenge is african for splinters, stay away from it if you can." Considering the bend I need to do -- I didn't want to get mired with all that.