*
I finished a quarter-sawn white oak Morris chair. In an act of breathtaking stupidity, I tried an unfamiliar finish on the finished chair after minimal testing on scrapwood. I used Old Growth Fumed Oak, a two part reactive stain I bought through Woodworker’s Supply, which is supposed to yeild a deep reddish brown stain similar to old mission oak. Black iron stains bloomed like mold all over the chair, followed by blotchy rust colored stains.The chair looks like it has been in a wet basement for five years. After considering suicide, I called the manufacturer of the stain, who informed me that Woodworker’s Supply had failed to include the two-page “Supplemental Instructions”, which called for using a non-metallic HVLP sprayer for application, and indicated that the wood must be free of brass, iron, or aluminum contaminants. I had, of course, burnished the entire piece with a brass-bristle brush and fine steel wool, hence the iron stains. The Old Growth tech representative tells me my only recourse is to bleach the entire chair with an evil mixture of oxcalic acid and industrial strength hydrogen peroxide. I can get the oxcalic acid at any hardware store, but where the hell am I going to get the hydrogen peroxide? Am I going to end up with a gleaming white bleached chair? Has anyone else out there had a similar disaster? Advice appreciated.
Discussion Forum
Get It All!
UNLIMITED Membership is like taking a master class in woodworking for less than $10 a month.
Start Your Free TrialCategories
Discussion Forum
Digital Plans Library
Member exclusive! – Plans for everyone – from beginners to experts – right at your fingertips.
Highlights
-
Shape Your Skills
when you sign up for our emails
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. -
Shop Talk Live Podcast -
Our favorite articles and videos -
E-Learning Courses from Fine Woodworking
-
-
Replies
*
Try the oaxalic acid first. Wipe on a saturated solution (dissolve the crystals in hot water until no more dissolves) and then wait overnight. The oaxalic acid will remove the black or tannate stains. If there's more color to remove the hydrogen peroxide can be purchased as two part wood bleach (Sherwin William sells it as does Wood cote) and its usually Part B. (look on the label) Part A is Sodium Hydroxide and will be labelled Caustic.
I'm curious though, did Old Growth tell you to apply the chemicals together or one after the other???
Jeff Jewitt
*You can buy hydrogen peroxide in up to 40% concentration in most "wholesale" beauty suuply houses. Most sell to anybody who walks in.Be careful -- it's REALLY caustic at that strength! You can also buy it in lesser concentrations -- 10, 20, and 30%. I believe the household variety is around 3%.
*Jeff:Thanks for the reply. Old Growth recommends mixing the oxcalic acid and peroxide together. They say the two chemicals won't interact chemically, the oxcalic attacking the iron stains, and the peroxide tackling the partially oxidized brown stains. Does this make sense? A local "old hand" carpenter told me I ought to sand the whole chair down first, prior to applying either chemical, bleach the whole chair, and then re-sand again. Time to buy a detail sander, because this is going to suck. I'd like to avoid sanding the whole thing twice, but maybe he's right. He thought the peroxide was unlikely to remove all the stain without some additional sanding. Comments?
*Jeff:Assuming I manage to remove all these hideous stains, I still want to get the deep mission brown color I tried to achieve with Old Growth. I like Watco Danish Oil, because it's idiot proof and leaves no plastic-like surface film. Conventional wood stains leave a lot of powdery pigment in the open grain, which is not the look I want. Even the "dark walnut" Watco stain ends up looking like golden oak finish on new wood, way too light. How about mixing oil-soluable aniline dye with the Watco to darken it? Woodworker's Supply has an oil soluable "fumed mission oak" dye they describe as compatible with danish oil or varnish. Any experience with this stuff? I guess I'm looking for a fumed-oak finish without the incredibly toxic ammonia process. Suggestions?
*You should consider starting with a dye stain that will really penetrate the wood. It will give a relatively uniform tone, coloring both early and late wood similarly--rather like fuming does. With a base tone established in this way, you can emphasize the grain more by sealing the dye with dewaxed shellac, and then using a stain with pigment in it. It will fill the pores, but as you already noted, it will only darken the hard parts a little. Then you can finish with clear Watch, or with shellac.
*You can make oak look any way you want with a two step coloring process, using a dye first, then a glaze. Go here for more info.Jeffhttp://www.homesteadfinishingprod.com/mission_oak.htm
*I haven't been able to find Watco Danish oil stain in my area for some time. I was told they sold the company to MinWax. Can anybody help me find them. I note in the messages some people are still using it.
*Watco actually belongs to Flecto, not Minwax. Their web site is http://www.flecto.com and has a retailer locator.Get mine from Woodcraft.Dave
*Flat black spray paint.
*Try jeff's medium brown transtint dye,then seal the dye with boiled linseed oil,let dry at least 24 hours.Then apply Lilly's warm brown glaze,part #014-6105,verythin coat.Jeff's dye has some very nice low key red highlights,& you can make it as dark or light as you want.The glaze works wonders for the even tone of the piece.You will probably have to go the Guardsman web site to find a dealer who carries the glaze.I dont know of any catalogs or woodworker stores that carry it.All I can tell you is that this is extremely close to an authentic Mission finish.My white oak Morris chairs have never been so beautiful.
*Have you tried gilsonite wiping stain? Sherwin-Williams industrial supply houses carry it; their retailers don't. Ask for stk # 5010-63119. It's a thick, gloopy concentrate you will need to cut about 50% with mineral spirits. Flood it on, then wipe off the excess. Work a small area at a time as it dries quickly. Produces a fairly deep red brown in a single application. I've been using this topped with two to three coats of orange shellac and getting a very nice mission finish with minimal fuss and bother.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled