I am building a small "tween" table (it is going between two recliner chairs) out of maple, and I would like it to be black when done. I have read about a few ways to dye it black including india ink, ebonizing with dissolved steel wool in a tea solution blahblahblah, and a couple of others. I still want to see the grain in the wood so I don't want to use paint. Besides, the top of this thing is going to be seeing a lot of use so I want a good coat or two (or three or four) of Poly. And I **might** even go so far as to laminate the top with some black laminate. Since I do not have any experience doing something like this, I thought I would ask here.

I have tried a sample using some calligraphy ink I had in a drawer, but the result was somewhat uneven. Wherever the application overlapped you could definitely see it. With some massaging of a second or third or even fourth application I think I could get an acceptable color, but it would take some work and it would add a little to the cost. It still might be worth it in the end.

I also tried using some TransTint dye in some alcohol but never got the color depth I want. Not even close. Besides, that would be rather expensive.

Lastly, I never thought this would work at all, but I used some Ritz fabric dye dissolved in alcohol and it seems, at this point, to be a my leading candidate. It surprised the heck outta me, but it doesn't look too bad at all. I would like the color to be a little deeper (I don't want just black, I want BLACK!!), but hey. It's cheap and doesn't look too bad. I haven't applied any poly to my sample yet so I don't know exactly how that will come out, but I don't expect it to change much at all.

One more thing I might want to try is getting a small can of poly and adding the Ritz directly to it. Would there be any advantages or disadvantages of doing it this way? The only thing that comes to mind is touch ups.

So for those of you who have done it (or anyone else for that matter), what are your recommendations for turning Maple black?

Thanks,

Wayne