Ebonising oak

[Harry581010]

I like to stain some of the oak I work with and use acectic acid with iron wool. It'll typically take a couple coats and to get things a bit blacker, instead of a blue/purple hint to it, I add a coat of a tannin product dissolved in water. My question is can I just add the tannin to the acetic acid and wire wool solution? Or would that react for some reason?
Thank you

 

[Orraloon]

You could try a few experiments. I have only tried it the one time and I did not mix the tannin in but brushed it on before doing the acid/iron mix. As the tannin was not dry when the mix was brushed on suggests that the tannin could be mixed in. I just followed the method I had seen in a few on line clips but I think keeping the tannin seperate will give you more control. My mix was just white vinegar and steel wool left in a jar for a week and tea for the tannin. I tried things on a few offcuts before doing the main project.

I found by trial and error how many coats were needed and that the tannin was required.
Regards
John

 

[Cabinetman]

Best to “wash” the s/wool to remove the oils added to prevent it rusting, try washing up liquid.
Good advice above. I have tried to turn Oak black and spent a Lot of hours on it, the best I could get was a lovely shade of Royal Blue. A rub with black shoe polish sorted that out.
After that I gave up and now add a little black dye to water based poly varnish, totally foolproof.