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Ebonizing Solution

F

Frank Kobilsek

Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
286
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4
Location
Mendota IL
I followed Neil Scobie's directions for preparing ebonizing solution in the summer journal. 3 cup vinegar and a steel wool pad, let it set. OK thats 10 days ago and now I have a 98% disolved steel wool pad floating in the vinegar. Do you strain out the floating remainers? What about the nasty rust at the water line? It just looks bad and I think if I dipped a paint brush in this mix I would transfer these particles to the work and have a hard time getting them back off the piece. From my results I think Neil skipped a step in the process of making the ebonizing solution. Oh question two, Whats the shelf life of the mix?

Frank
 
I filtered mine through a fine piece of cloth. Just an old rag but fine weave. After another week you might not have anything to filter out though. It is amazing how the mild acid in the vinigar totaly disolves the steel wool. As for shelf life, I don't know. Mine's about 2 months old and I think it is still viable. I just keep it in a tightly sealed jar. Vinigar seems to last for months in a sealed bottle so I don't see why this wouldn't be any different.
 
I seem to recall that the shelf life is not much past 3-4 months. There was a write-up in one of the finishing books I have at home. The procedure in there specified overnight if I recall, certainly not 10 days and there was a lot less steel wool remnants left when I tried it compared with what you have experienced.

This was probably in the article - the solution does not always ebonize the wood you are using. It depends on the level of tannins. On pine, it turns the color a nice warm chocolate brown. On eucalyptus, it turns a nice transparent black that allowed one to still see a touch of grain & a few dark brown shades.
 
Since there is a continous chemical process going on I would assume it has a shelf life. I have no idea about the process since I have no chemistry background beyond 10th grade science a long time ago. Makes sense that since the vinegar dissolves the steel wool pad to the naked eye there muct be something happening beyond what we can see. Luckily the investment here is mostly time it doesn't cost much to make a new batch, just takes some time.

I made a batch a month or so ago to use on some oak and pecan platters I was making, with amazing results. It still works but seems to have lost some of the punch but that may be my imagination.
 
OK, went back & opened up Jeff Jewitt's book on Finishing. He did mention filtering through a coffee filter. The soak time for the steel wool is 1 day for moderate ebonizing, 2-3 days for strong ebonizing. I did not find anything in there that mentioned shelf life. I think I got that from another reference. Back to looking...
 
another option

There is another cleaner, no strain option.

The reason the wirewool and vinegar works is because you, or rather the acid in the vinegar breaks down the wire wool and produces a sulphate of iron. I don't know about the US, but here in the UK we can buy Ferrous Sulphate powder/crystals in a box from any good garden centre...it's used as a garden fertilizer.

I buy a 2.5kg box of the stuff for about (lazy conversion looming up) $1.50. You simplymix it with water I use tepid, and continue adding it and stirring until I have a saturated solution. It works just the same, it's clean, requires no straining, is ready in a few minutes, and at the price you can pour the excess on the garden and make a fresh batch every time.

I believe the resulting solution is actuallya ferrous(ii) suphate, and as such not as strong as a ferrous(iii) sulphate, but it still turns oak, acacia, and ash varying shades of black. Repeated aplpications with a hot air paint stripper drying between applications, gives a deeper black.

Happy ebonizing!

Andy
 
Think Andy has it. It's a ferrous to ferric move, IIRC. Acetate to tannate. Which means that the solution itself is pretty stable. I've used 6 month stuff before, and it still did the job. Was closely capped and inside a cabinet, so there wasn't a lot of excess energy available.
 
Andy Coates said:
There is another cleaner, no strain option.

The reason the wirewool and vinegar works is because you, or rather the acid in the vinegar breaks down the wire wool and produces a sulphate of iron. I don't know about the US, but here in the UK we can buy Ferrous Sulphate powder/crystals in a box from any good garden centre...it's used as a garden fertilizer.

I buy a 2.5kg box of the stuff for about (lazy conversion looming up) $1.50. You simplymix it with water I use tepid, and continue adding it and stirring until I have a saturated solution. It works just the same, it's clean, requires no straining, is ready in a few minutes, and at the price you can pour the excess on the garden and make a fresh batch every time.

I believe the resulting solution is actuallya ferrous(ii) suphate, and as such not as strong as a ferrous(iii) sulphate, but it still turns oak, acacia, and ash varying shades of black. Repeated aplpications with a hot air paint stripper drying between applications, gives a deeper black.

Happy ebonizing!

Andy
Click to expand...

Vinegar is actually Acetic Acid - as such you would form an acetate salt of iron not a sulfate salt. There would be no sulfate in the steel wool/vinegar mix. The Ferrous sulfate you are buying may give you similar results but chemically is different from the vinegar/steel wool salt that is formed.

The chemical reaction will stop whenever either product is used up and chemcal equilibrium is reached - either the acetic acid or the iron. Without full reaction potential data available I would believe that the solution formed would be basically Ferrous (II) Acetate with some small amount of Ferric(III) acetate also present in the solution. It has been a LONG time since my inorganic chemistry but normally you would react all the Fe (II) available before you start stepping up to the Fe(III) compound. As it appears there are still pieces of iron available to react (based on the filtering needed), this would tell me that we basically are still in the Ferrous(II) acetate formation for this solution and the acetic acid is the product being used up to reach equilibrium. As you are forming a stable salt solution -it should have a good shelf life.

Wilford
 
Wilford,

I think you're right about the formula. Based on Jewitt's book and other references to "Iron Buff", it's Iron Acetate, not Iron Sulphate. There's no sulfur in the reactants. But I will definitley try the iron sulphate. I agree it sounds like a much more hassle free approach. It probably also doesn't iritate one's cuticles or cuts as well. :)
 
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