How do I stain Oak black?

[Chris Padilla]

Several black Sharpie pens should work.

Personally, I'd go with the black lacquer that Phil suggested BUT, experiment to get the kind of black you want.

[Dan Carroll]

My college age son had a similar demand for a coffee table back in September; had to go together durning fall break from school. At the end of the day, I ended up using MinWax Polyshades in Black. Not my normal procedure, but it ended up with the look he wanted. Aftyer about three coats (light sanding in between) it has nice black sheen and you could just see the grain through it. I hated it, he thought it was cool. And since he is the one who has to look at it, so what. It had the advantage of being easy

[Tony Bilello]

To match a Pioneer television with an upper cabinet, I painted the oak with black lacquer and finished it off with a low luster clear lacquer. Matched perfectlly and without the mess of dying or staining. I doubt Ikea ebonizes anything.

+1 for Phil
Black Lacquer is the way to go.
See Attached photos
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[Stephen Pereira]

The article references using quebracho bark extract to intensify the black achieved with the steel wool. Other than buying a pound of the stuff on Amazon for $100, has anyone found any decent on line alternatives? That seems like a lot, considering the instructions call for using a tablespoon at a time. I'd like to try this, but I've checked a bunch of taxidermy places and have come up empty... Is it potentially marketed under some other name or through some other source?

I bought 5 lbs of bark from Van Dyke's Taxidermy supplies..cost about
$25.00 including shipping. I followed the instructions form an recent article in PW..the article is on the website.

I followed the article's instructions..dissolved washed steel wool in vinegar for a week..made a solution of quebracho bark and applied it to a test piece of QS ash. First coat turned a shade of grey..added more bark and gave it another coat..turned dark brown..added another teaspoon of bark and gave it another coat..turn jet black. Pretty cool.

[Phil Thien]

So how colorfast is India ink when exposed to sunlight? I read it is made with lampblack, but couldn't turn up anything definitive for use as a wood stain.

[Eric DeSilva]

Odd, when I checked yesterday, Van Dyke's site was returning a 404 error. Today it seems to work fine... Thanks.