Bleaching Ash

[noddy67]

I'm just in the middle of making a piece that involves some solid Ash and some 1 1/2 mm Ash veneered boards. The veneer has a yellowish tint to it whereas the solid timber is much whiter. I saw this post about bleaching Ash

viewtopic.php?t=7026

but wondered whether anyone else had any experience and might be able to offer some advice. Thanks

 

[petertheeater]

Hi there
I often find this when matching veneered to solid boards. I suspect it is the fact that the timber in veneers has been exposed to air and uv light from day one of being cut. Whereas timber is left sawn for longer. I find that the finish (oil for me) and a bit of time even them out. However I believe most ash veneer is American and slightly different to European.

 

[custard]

I've never bleached Ash but I have bleached a couple of paler timbers including Holly and Sycamore. Couple of points,

- The Oxalic Acid and household bleach routes are just for stain removal, for lightening wood the two pack bleach is the only option.
- It really does work, but only the surface and down to a few tenths of a mill are affected. It's therefore important to raise the grain first with hot water (maybe twice to be safe) and complete all your sanding before bleaching because you'll only be able to lightly skim the surface afterwards with 600 grit without going through and revealing unbleached wood.
- A second application of two pack bleach will lighten the wood even more and remove any hints of blotchiness which you might encounter.
- Ash will go darker on the surfaces naturally as it ages, so have you first tried sanding the surface of the veneered boards?
- If you plan an oil or varnish finish there's not much point in bleaching as they always impart a yellow tinge. To keep that driftwood white look you'll need a non yellowing finish like water based polyurethane or a blonde de-waxed shellac. If you want to fill the grain on Ash I've recently been trying a new water based grain filler called Aqua Coat, it's not cheap but it does what it says on the tin.

Good luck!

 

[noddy67]

Thanks Custard. What is two pack bleach? I've never heard of it? Do you know a brand name?

I was hoping to try the natural soap finish (Danish I think, recently in FW and F&C magazines) on the Ash which I was hoping would help keep it white. Have you ever tried that?

Any thoughts on what I could fill the grain with a bit before a soap finish?

 

[custard]

This is what I mean by a two pack bleach,

http://www.rustins.eu/web/images/infosh ... Bleach.pdf

There's lots of different brands but I'm pretty confident they're all virtually identical so you can just buy on price.

I haven't tried the soap finish but like you I've been reading about it and it looks very interesting. Not least because it's a grain filler and a non-yellowing finish all in one, so absolutely perfect for Ash.

I'm normally pretty sceptical about whacky finishes (I'm old enough to remember the "vaseline finish" disasters of the 1980's) but I've marked this one down as definitely worth a try on Ash (but probably only on Ash, it could look like a badly executed limed finish on say Oak). I really like the idea of it being it's own built in grain filler with an ivory colour that should work well on Ash, if you look at Ash furniture that's a few years old the open grain generally gets full of dirt which doesn't look good at all, and grain filling is the only way to prevent that. Probably best to test on some scrap veneer first, because a soap finish seems to involve sloshing on quite a bit of water. Still you could always mix up the soap a bit thicker and a good veneering job should be able to handle that, after all hammer veneering is an even wetter process!

Let us know how you get on, I'd be very interested.