My wife is asking me to refinish an existing coffee table which had been stained and shellaced.Construction is red oak. I have stripped and sanded the surfaces. The problem is that I am asked to refinish in black such that the grain of the wood remains apparent. I am looking for suggestions on how to approach this.
Thanks, MikeC
Replies
Prepare some red oak samples with the same treatment given the table - sanding the same amount of time, with the same grit schedule, ... Aniline dyes color wood without pigment, so you might try several applications of full strength black on one sample. India ink is sometimes recommended for coloring wood black. I don't have any experience with it, but that can be another sample. A third approach you can try is combining iron and the tannin in oak. Soak some iron scrap in water for 24 hours and then generously wipe the water on a third sample.
I agree with Don that to get a deep black color without "painting" the wood you'll want to use a dye (or ink).
The dye won't do a good job of coloring the pores. After you dye the wood, apply an oil-base wiping stain to get better coloring including the pores. Minwax has an oil-base "Ebony" stain that is made mostly of dye with some pigment to color the pores. The Minwax alone won't get the wood nearly as dark as the dye/stain combination.
Once the stain dries, apply your clear coats.
Sources of dye include;
woodfinishingsupplies.com
woodfinishsupply.com
homesteadfinishing.com
Sherwin Williams Paint
or search google.com for "aniline dye"
Paul
F'burg, VA
RIT dye mixed with denatured alcohol works pretty good too.
Mike,
You could also try flooding the oak with full-strength household ammonia. The ammonia will react to the tannin and turn the wood very dark.
Alan
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