Blackening/Ebonizing Ash, help please

[John Stevens]

Hi, guys. I'm just starting my test panels, and hoping that someone can save me a little time.

I'm working with solid ash and ash-veneered ply for the first time, trying to give both a uniform, solid black color. I planned to use Trans-tint dye applied with a 50-50 alcohol-water solution.

I sanded to 180 grit and applied the dye solution to a test panel of the ply. Much more of the dye was absorbed by the pores than by the wood between the pores. The pores are nice and black, but between the rows of pores it's a ghastly shade of gray.

Will the gray areas go black if I apply one or two or three more coats? Or do I need to treat the bare wood with a wash coat to keep the pores from absorbing more dye than the rest of the wood? Or can I not use Trans-Tint to get a uniform-solid black color in ash?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,

John

[Ian Gillis]

Hi

I've used an old school method on ash. I let some rusty steel/iron sit in a water/vinegar mix and did several (many) applications of this on the ash, removing the raised grain with fine steel wool. I have only done this on very small pieces - a small carving and some dowels and plugs which I actually soaked in the soup for a few days. Aside from the carving, these were just small accents added to projects.

It's not fast, but the results are pretty good.

Cheers

Ian

[Tom Klass]

go buy some india ink it'll go faster and blacker then the dye will.
good luck
tom

[Gene Howe]

go buy some india ink it'll go faster and blacker then the dye will.
good luck
tom

Ditto. I works for me. Still looking for a place to buy it in larger quantities.

[Steve Jenkins]

depending on how you are set up the easiest way for a black black is to thin down black lacquer and spray a couple coats. It gives an interesting effect as everything is really black but the pores reflect light and show silvery.

[Steve Schoene]

When you are looking at your results have you applied a coat of your intended topcoat. Dyed surfaces look dramatically different before the top coat than after.

Until you have added a topcoat, you can get a darker result by applying additional coats, and/or applying a more concentrated mixture--less solvent and more dye.

[John Stevens]

Hi, guys. Thanks to all of you for your suggestions--all good.

In case anyone in the future searches and finds this thread, here's what I ended up doing. I ran another round of tests, and yes, two coats of dye (total) evened out the color. Then I noticed that the dye wasn't being absorbed into all the pores.

I needed to see what it would look like with the top coat anyway, and seeing as the top coat was shellac, I figured the shellac would carry the dye as it filled the pores. Yup. Pics of the test boards below. Left side is solid ash, right side is ash-veneered ply. Upper part is the dye without the shellac, bottom part is after the dyed shellac was applied.

Dye mixture was 50-50 alcohol-distilled water, with dye added at 1:32 (one ounce per quart). Shellac was Sealcoat, right out of the can (dewaxed light shellac in a 2lb cut, I think) with dye added at 1:64.

Regards,

John

[Joe Chritz]

Love your sig line John.

What is the purpose of mixing DNA and water for the transtint?

Joe

[John Stevens]

What is the purpose of mixing DNA and water for the transtint?

Hi, Joe. The mfr recommends using distilled water by itself, but then says it may be mixed 50-50 with DNA so it'll raise the grain less. It worked, plus it dried very quickly.

BTW, I'm unable to edit my second post in this thread, and just found a mistake in it. The ratio was 1:16 for the dye and 1:32 for the shellac.

Regards,

John

[Todd Hoppe]

Check out this thread. This guy's project came out GREAT:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=67805