Oak, Vinegar and Wire Wool....

[BrianH]

Just a thought...
There is nothing magic about using wirewool, bent nails, rusty screws or any other steel scrap will work just as well.Wirewool's huge surface area will allow the chemistry to work faster though.
Brian

[arcos]

Is the effect different on dry oak to green oak?

Only, the piece I have attempted to ebonise is looking light purple!

It is a green piece of oak... Just wondering?

[bodrighywood]

It should work on either in fact  have a load of green and wet oak at the moment which has black marks where it has been on something iron at some point,. It will also make a mess of your lathe bed and tools if you don't clean them off after turning the wood. If the mixture hasn't been soaking very long then it will go bluish not instantly black and you will need to either reapply it or pretend that you were aiming for blue all the time.

Pete

[Bryan Milham]

If you've got branch wood it may only have a light effect.

I did it to a small brown oak pot I made where one side was cambium layer and the rest was heartwood. The heartwood went wonderfully black and the cambium scarcely changed, maybe a dull smoke blue at best.

So it would appear to work best on the more tanic timber.

[BrianH]

Its all down to your iron and tannin content.. said the bishop to the barmaid