I’m in the process of building 10 cabinets that when put together makeup a Library Wall. The material I choose is yellow Poplar wood with the usual light gray and greenish grain intermixed.
Now that I’m getting closer to finishing the project, I’m trying to fill a request from my customer to match her new family room furniture. To briefly describe the final finish, it is a smokie charcoal with a satin topcoat.
Does anyone have an idea or finish recipe that can full fill this request?
Thanks and as always work safely!
Butch
Replies
Have you ever tried mixing steel shavings with vinegar? It will turn wood very dark, in fact almost black so I would suggest you keep it quite watered down. Obviously experiment first. After it dries, sand as it raises the grain and finish with lacquer or any other finishing material you like. Terry
I would imagine that steel wool and vinegar would do the trick. One question comes to mind, is there a residual odor and what is done about that?Thanks for your reply!Butch
No odor once it dries. It takes very little shavings to get the effect.
I've used the steel wool and vinegar ebonizing extensively. I've not had very good luck with poplar at all - at best, a sickly gray.I like ebonizing walnut best because it comes out very uniform and dark. The more tannin a wood has, the darker, more uniformly, and more reliably it will ebonize.I've not been happy with ebonizing oak because the inside wall of the pores is very hard and doesn't darken like the softer wood, even though oak has loads of tannins.I'd start out trying water or alcohol based stains or paints for your poplar. There is some good advice on this in some of the other posts.
White oak apparently has the right amount of tannin as it reacts much better to potassium dicromate (and steel/vinegar mix) than red oak. I rarely deal with poplar as a surface wood but not surprised about it not taking the vinegar mix well.
Poplar is great of stuff INSIDE your project..I like the wood alot (cheep) and easy to work.. Just not hard enough to 'show' it off..
Do the grain and texture show at all? Lately I've seen a lot of commercial pieces finished in what looks like a a flat or satin paint that has then been waxed. The paint is applied thin enough that some of the pores of the wood may be visible but the color is all in the paint not in the wood. If I were going to try to duplicate this look I'd start with a latex satin paint and then try buffing it out with a wax after it dries.
If the finish is a stain, then you can find a lot of information by searching for ebonizing techniques.
John W.
Satin acrilic paint... Paint really thin... Lightly sand between coats.. In fact just wipe it on with a rag and buff off all you can..If you are good with colors you can mix what you need with some acrilic tints you can get at one of them place the ladies go to for makin' 'womens stuff'.. YES! I go there and find lots of nice things.. Especially the check-out ladies...NO I can't mix colors.. I call my daughter over to mix it for me...Edit:: I'm not color blind.. Just likes Black, White, and Brown!
Edited 8/6/2005 3:36 pm ET by Will George
I have 2 finishing books that I'll browse through for ebonizing techniques, and I'll surf through the website of Minwax. Other than that do you have any other sources of information?ThanksButch
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