Replies

1. 
   John_Adams | Mar 28, 2000 04:03pm | #1

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   I would not use potassium dichromate on any object that would be placed in the mouth. It is very toxic and can cause death. I suspect the vinegar simply haults the chemical reaction with the acids in Cherry, and though it might flush most of the chemical away, it does not detoxify the piece. And ...mark your solution well, as the article suggests.

   It does a marvelous job of adding 150 years to the appearance of cherry, without obscuring the grain!

1. 
   Don_Stephan | Mar 30, 2000 04:06am | #2

   *I was going to try the same chemical stain until I saw comments about the toxicity of it. Saw a cherry cabinet that had been finished with Mr. Jewitt's Antique Cherry Red aniline dye followed by orange shellac. It didn't look bad for an attempt to make new cherry look aged. I bought several aniline dye colors, including the above, to experiment. Decided I'd rather not be exposed to or expose customers' kids to potassium dichromate if at all possible.

1. 
   Richard_Lundberg | Mar 30, 2000 04:40am | #3

   *I tried using potassium dichromate on oak furniture. The samples came out well, but when applied to the real thing I got widely different results on different parts. Obviously the wood was different. Some (most) came out reddish-brown almost instantaneously. The rest produced very little color even after two days and multiple applications. Any ideas on how to even out the results?

1. 
   Drew_Nyman | Mar 31, 2000 09:55am | #4

   *This method does not work well on sapwood. could that be the problem?

1. 
   Doug_Greenlee | Apr 12, 2000 01:03am | #5

   *Spencer,I am not a chemist, but you can get the MSDS on many materials including potassium dichromate at http://www.chemfinder.com/. It is also a potential way to find sources, but in most cases the quantities are too small. From the MSDS on Potassium Dichromate, it appears that the toxicity problem is the chromium which is a known cancer causer. I think this would not go away with vinegar washing or anything else without actually removing the desired effect.Perhaps someone with a lot more knowledge than I could comment.Doug