Making Homemade Stain - Success & Failure

[mike_wood]

Never got around to making homemade stain but my friend brought me some walnuts so I decided to make stain with them. Worked great. I boiled them for about 10 min in 1 gal water (20 nuts) then let it steep for 30 min or so. Kept testing by dipping a piece of wood in it until I got the color I wanted. Was not looking for a color in particular but just something I thought looked good. Happy with results.

After that success I tried the vinegar/steel wool to see what would happen. Put a 0000 steel wool pad from my shop in a pint jar & filled with white vinegar. Two days later - nothing, nada. Not sure what happened. Will try again with another vinegar.

 

[tvrgeek]

Some steel wool is coated for protection.

 

[HITCH-]

What type of wood did you try to ebonize? The steel wool/ vinegar react to the tannin in the wood. You will get better results if you use a wood with a high tannin content. You can also buy tannin (it is used in wine making) and add it to the surface of any wood.
Be sure to poke a hole in the lid of your vinegar /steel wood mixture. It can create enough pressure to explode if you don't allow it to expand.

 

[mike_wood]

I put the vinegar/sw in a jar, set it in my shop, and have been working a lot on our garden as it looks like an early spring. Whenever I passed by in the shop I would look at it but not touch. A couple days later I was thinking of trying again with different vinegar so picked up the jar and with that motion the liquid went from clear to brown. I just needed to shake it up. Yea, I felt sorta dumb.

Not really looking to ebonize just get a light brown on some sycamore I was given. I have had a hard time getting a color I like. I think this will work out.

 

[Gofor]

Never got around to making homemade stain but my friend brought me some walnuts so I decided to make stain with them. Worked great. I boiled them for about 10 min in 1 gal water (20 nuts) then let it steep for 30 min or so. Kept testing by dipping a piece of wood in it until I got the color I wanted. Was not looking for a color in particular but just something I thought looked good. Happy with results.

After that success I tried the vinegar/steel wool to see what would happen. Put a 0000 steel wool pad from my shop in a pint jar & filled with white vinegar. Two days later - nothing, nada. Not sure what happened. Will try again with another vinegar.

Were these black walnuts in the husk? The husks hold the most stain.