Looking for a natural dark wood. As close to black without a finish as
possibly can get.

Any ideas???

TR

Looking for a natural dark wood. As close to black without a finish as
possibly can get.

Ebony.

Bring a fat (or plastic) wallet.

Barry


"Wenge" is not over the top for price and can be found quite easily.

Cheers,
aw

On 1 May 2005 17:33:44 -0700, "TrailRat"
wrote:

Looking for a natural dark wood. As close to black without a finish as
possibly can get.

How big ? How strong ? Can you allow visible grain texture?

Ebony is pretty much off the menu these days. The close substitute is
african blackwood, which is very close to it but is variegated into
black and pale zones. You need to be careful selecting your blank and
sawing out just the black part.

Both of these are brittle and not especially strong. If you want
something of "structural" size, then you might be better with something
pale and easily ebonised, like oak or even maple. These can be ebonised
well without needing to apply a visible film-forming finish to them.

--
Cats have nine lives, which is why they rarely post to Usenet.

It's for a large wall mounted display cabinet. It will need to hold
metal, ceramic, glass etc etc collection pieces. The largest piece to
source will be the backing board but that may have to be made up of
smaller pieces.


How do you ebonise a pale timber?

TR

On 1 May 2005 17:33:44 -0700, "TrailRat"
wrote:

Looking for a natural dark wood. As close to black without a finish as
possibly can get.

Any ideas???

TR

I'll toss it in just for the sake of your wallet. If you select black
walnut carefully, it can be awful dark without much of a stain. It's
not black by any means, but it is a fine looking dark wood- and you
won't have to morgage your house to build a shelf out of it

BTW, I know ebonized maple was suggested, but I wouldn't count on that
unless you're exceptionally gifted. It's hard to get much of anything
into maple, and it's light to begin with. Oak ebonizes fine.


Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

On 2 May 2005 02:55:57 -0700, "TrailRat"
wrote:

How do you ebonise a pale timber?

Google the group - it's a regular discussion.

Oak (also walnut, chestnut and a few others) contains lots of tannic
acid, so there are traditional recipes based on iron and vinegar that
give an easy black on it. Maple would best be done with something like
a commercial spirit dye. As always, experiment on scrap first.

I wouldn't use oak for a display case with valuable metalwork. If I did,
I'd line the insides.


--
Cats have nine lives, which is why they rarely post to Usenet.

TrailRat wrote:

It's for a large wall mounted display cabinet. It will need to hold
metal, ceramic, glass etc etc collection pieces. The largest piece to
source will be the backing board but that may have to be made up of
smaller pieces.

In ebony that's going to be hideously expensive (on the order of $50/bf) and
weigh a ton (ebony is one of the densest of woods).

The trunk diameter of ebony is typically under 2 feet. Don't expect wide
boards. If you do find any expect to pay a huge premium.

You might want to consider either veneering or lacquering. A good lacquer
job will be a deal of work but done right it's definitely in the "fine
furniture" category.

How do you ebonise a pale timber?

For oak or other woods with lots of tannins, there's a method that relies on
the reaction of tannic acid with iron--there are some nice photos of the
result at http://sdksupplies.netfirms.com/cat_bokuto.htm about halfway
down the page and a description of the process at
http://hryh23.sasktelwebsite.net/Recipes/recipes.html. Getting a true
and uniform black may be chancy.

Various dyes have also been used to blacken wood and the process called
"ebonizing" although a purist would insist on applying that term only to
the tannic-acid method.


TR

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

On 1 May 2005 17:33:44 -0700, "TrailRat" wrote:

Looking for a natural dark wood. As close to black without a finish as
possibly can get.

Any ideas???

TR
Black Walnut?
Starts out pretty dark, gets darker with a coat of oil or rubbing poly..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Looking for a natural dark wood. As close to black without a finish as
possibly can get.

If you're ambitious (and rich) enough, you may want to consider Wenge. It
is a beautiful, very deep colored African wood. A few thinks to keep in
mind:
- Cost: about $13/bf
- Weight: Heavy, but not nearly as heavy as Ebony
- Color: Very dark brown (especially when finished with something like
lacquer); it resembles a deep-roasted coffee bean, but with a lot of
straight-grained texture
- Other Characteristics: Very brittle (splinters easily), and oh yeah...
it's toxic (I read something about it being used to stun fish in Africa, or
something like that)
- Workability: Not very user-friendly; difficult to sand, hand plane, etc.

With all of the fears aside -- IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!

Btw... I was going to make a dining room table from this stuff, but
chickened out at the last minute. I'm using Walnut with an Ebony stain now.
=-)

I'm curious to try the ebonizing process mentioned here though!

X_HOBBES