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Ebonized oak fretboard how to

.I ebonized a fret board last night and did some photos of it.
I use steel wool soaked in vinegar. The steel wool should be washed in alochol to remove the oil, but you can skip it if you are not really anal. I do not measure the ratio, so in this container I used a chunk about twice the size of a pea. I filtered it through a coffe filter before using, test it before using on your fret board. Make sure the board if free of glue, as in sand off any glue.
So here it is ready to go.

Ron.

I started to pain it on and you can see it has begun to darken before I got it all on.

I got one coat on the whole thing and you can see the wood has a line of dark and light, this has never happened to me before, but hey it is all part of the beauty of wood. This must be about 1 min after I got it all painted on.

This next photo about 3 min later.

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Permalink Reply by Mungo Park on August 5, 2010 at 3:47am

I let the board sit for about 10 min.
And one final photo the next day, so that is about as dark as it is going to get. I will go with it, I like the dark, light look of it. The metal in the solution reacts with the tannins in the wood so the results are defendant on the amount of tannin in the wood. Oak has a lot but this piece has a inconsistent amount. My solution is a little old, about 2 weeks, so that also might have some affect on the results, as it does not seem to keep all that long. The whole thing will darken with some finish on it.
Cheers Ron.

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Permalink Reply by Hey, TURN IT DOWN! on August 5, 2010 at 8:38am

Looks good....I gotta try that!!!

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on August 5, 2010 at 10:29am

I did that with my God Of Fire guitar, and it looks great!! And it's cheap!

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Permalink Reply by Ben on August 5, 2010 at 10:54am

Nice. So it significantly darkens after application?

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on August 5, 2010 at 12:33pm

Usually within minutes...

Ben said:

Nice. So it significantly darkens after application?

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Permalink Reply by Mungo Park on August 5, 2010 at 3:49pm

It is also a good finish to repair, a application over a spot, before the finish is put on, brings it back really well.
I like it as it is easy, cheap, home brew, and a nice looking finish. You can use any steel/iron in a pinch, but steel wool works rather fast and I have a bunch of it. You can put it on other woods, but i have only used it on oak and maple.Maple gets a gray look that would be good for a aged look.
Cheers Ron.

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Permalink Reply by Ronnie Retherford on August 5, 2010 at 5:16pm

Here is a red oak fret board that I 'stained' with Kiwi brand 'Heel and Sole Dressing'

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Permalink Reply by Mark on August 7, 2010 at 4:14am

Interesting results. There definitely seems to be a difference in the reaction and the dividing line seems to coincide with the boundary of a set of growth rings.

You might be interested in my experiments with iron sulphate solutions. This involves essentially the same reaction (tannins and iron ions) as you get with the vinegar and steel wool method but with certain advantages.

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/albums/wood-stain-experiments

I was surprised by the speed of the colour change- it really does begin in a matter of seconds and as far as I can tell it is pretty much complete within minutes.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Harrison on August 7, 2010 at 5:17am

A number of years ago I experimented with ebonizing oak. I wanted it to be pitch black. I took a large ice chest and added about 1 inch of salt water in the bottom. Also I used an aquarium air pump ( this was done to keep the max amount of oxygen in the container to help the rust process)Then I made a support to keep the wood out of the water. I put a mixture of vinegar and metal filings/steel wool on the wood. Then I closed the lid of the ice chest and at that point the ice chest became a green house. I lived in Phoenix at the time and the temp was 112 degs. In a few days the wood was black and stained very deep.

This might not work well for a fingerboard because of warping.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Breault on August 7, 2010 at 5:34am

How long did you let the steel wool steep in the vinigar? I just tried it and got no results at all. I'm going to let the wool steep longer and see what happens.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Harrison on August 7, 2010 at 7:08am

Kentucky rifle builders some times use Sulfuric acid or pool cleaning acid and steel wool to stain maple. It take about 10 minutes or less to dissolve a pad of steel wool. They keep putting the steel wool in the bath until the acid stops eating the steel wool. And don't breath the fumes!

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Permalink Reply by Spencer on August 7, 2010 at 9:37am

Steel wool is used because it degrades very quickly. Use a handful of rusty iron of any sort - nails, etc. I made up a batch a few weeks ago with a piece of hardware cloth that had rusted to the point of falling apart, soaked in vinegar for a week or so. I tried it on some staghorn sumac and birch plywood last week and it's excellent. It just dulled the birch to a greenish brown after two coats (exactly what I wanted in that case) and three coats on the sumac turned it ebony black. About every part of the sumac tree = tannins galore. Sands back very nicely, as well. Ebonizing is now an important part of my refinishing/finishing projects.