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.i want to make quite a few kitchen cabinet drawer pulls and door handles finished in an ebony color – kind of flat. i can use hard maple, mahogany or walnut. would like to finish with tung oil or oil varnish. how would you suggest i go about this and which wood would be the best and easiest. i don’t want to see much of the wood grain showing through. want it to contrast with some really nice oiled mahogany and redwood drawers and doors.
thanks very much for your help. i just usually use some kind of oil finish so not much of an expert on finishes.
john
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. I have found that walnut when treated with iron acetate (rusty iron soaked in white vinegar) will make a convincing substitute for ebony. Other possibilities include aniline dye and India ink. Of these I would think the aniline dye would be the best choice, but the India ink would be more light fast. The walnut is not nearly as hard as true ebony. I have also used Purple Heart dyed to resemble ebony, because of its hardness.
*thanks robcan i buy iron acetate or do i have to do it myself? what about maple to eliminatre the pores?thanks again. all help really appreciated.john
*I just finished a piece where I used Maple dyed black with Transfast dye in an alcohol base. I was also trying simulate ebony on some trim pieces to match true ebony draw pulls and feet. You have to keep applying and rubbing it in to get it dark enough and when finished it makes a convincing substitute.However, it is very easy to cut through the color and with maple underneath would be very obvious. I would be concerned that on drawer pulls you may eventually wear through the dye. I used ebony for the parts subject to wear and the dyed substitute for some of the accents.However, I don't think any of the above substitutes truly comes close to the look and feel of real ebony.
*thanks.i would agree about the real ebony. but... where can i get a real jet black ebony board? if anyone knows a source i would appreciate it.thanks again
*I've used with great success of the years black leather dye. Try Tandy Supply. It takes a great oil and waxz finish and is as convincing as it gets - and easy, easy, easy.
*I was in Bali last spring and spent quite a bit of time touring furniture-making and wood-carving workshops, family run and larger outfits.We saw loads great pieces made out of (apparently) dark, rich black woods. My traveling companion would always ask the name of the wood, and the response was always the same: "Ebony, ebonywood."I kept telling him (my fellow traveler), "No way. Too cheap [relatively; this is Indonesia after all] and too much of it."Finally, we got to a shop where incredibly detailed decorative wood panels were being carved. After watching the carvers for a while, we turned to go into the main shop. Sitting on the floor, toothbrush in hand, was an 80-year-old woman with a gallon can of shoe polish sitting next to her. She was carefully, but quickly, rubbing the shoe polish into every nook and cranny of the carving."There's your ebonywood," I said. Later that day my friend ran a fingernail along a carved ebony walking stick he'd purchased a couple of days before. Amazingly, the wood beneath it was blond. Go figure.Anyway, nothing against the workmanship of some of these craftspeople. I bought a number of pieces myself, including some faux-ebony items. They're beautiful for what they are.A long story, just to illustrate that black shoe polish can, indeed, be decent substitute -- although I don't know the long-term effects, positive or negative, on the underlying wood.David
*Groff & Groff lumber have ebony. Get the Gabon Ebony which is nearly pure black. The Macassar ebony has sapwood like streaks in it. Be prepared to shell out some serious money, because it is $40.00 a BF. I buy quite a bit of for making my inlays, and I’ve never seen a board larger than about 4-5 inches wide, or longer than 4 feet. Groff & Groff run advertisements in every issue of FWW. They are great people to deal with.
*John,This question was asked on the main level yesterday, here's the link to my reply Danford C. Jennings "source for ebony" 1/10/02 10:26pmDano
*wenge looks really cool, and might be a good alterative to ebony. it also finishes really nice, and you won't have to worry about the stain wearing through in some places.
*I am looking for information regarding ebonizing wood. any help is appreciated.
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