Old trick for darkening (ebonising) wood

[humperdingle]

Hey folks, i've been doing leatherwork for a while now and happened upon an age old technique for turning leather black instead of using dyes.

Called 'vinegaroon'. Basically, it's steel wool dissolved into vinegar, which when rubbed on or dipped, the leather turns a black or dark grey colour depending on how much you treat it.
Some kind of chemical reaction.

Turns out this technique also works on wood!

So anyway, my playing cue is a cheap Chinese maple job which was touted as ebony and maple. Course is isn't, and I never really thought it would be. The butt, after I stripped it back, was a dark brown colour.

Tried the vinegaroon on it today and whaddya know? It went black (ish)

I'll try to post up pictures later but don't think I have a before pic...doh...

Just thought i'd let you guys know in case you fancy a go.

[itsnoteasy]

Are you going to keep treating it, to see how dark it will go?

[jlowap]

Look forward to see this. I wonder if it fades over time?

[humperdingle]

Are you going to keep treating it, to see how dark it will go?

I clearly haven't stripped all the old finish off as there are a couple of bits that didn't 'take'.

Yeh, i'll strip the patches that haven't coloured properly and do it again.

I was concerned that it'd stink like hell but the chemical reaction seems to remove much of the pungent odour.

[humperdingle]

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Sorry, cruddy photo, but you can probably see the patch of old colour, and the difference in contrast after one treatment.

[100-uper]

Hey folks, i've been doing leatherwork for a while now and happened upon an age old technique for turning leather black instead of using dyes.

Called 'vinegaroon'. Basically, it's steel wool dissolved into vinegar, which when rubbed on or dipped, the leather turns a black or dark grey colour depending on how much you treat it.
Some kind of chemical reaction.

Turns out this technique also works on wood!

So anyway, my playing cue is a cheap Chinese maple job which was touted as ebony and maple. Course is isn't, and I never really thought it would be. The butt, after I stripped it back, was a dark brown colour.

Tried the vinegaroon on it today and whaddya know? It went black (ish)

I'll try to post up pictures later but don't think I have a before pic...doh...

Just thought i'd let you guys know in case you fancy a go.

If you are interested in staining wood, then the following recipes might be of interest which relate to the staining of ivory billiard balls, and specifically the black ball.

Black:
(1) Make a strong solution of silver nitrate. After an immersion of several hours, the balls are removed and exposed to a strong light.

(2) Boil a handful of logwood chips in 1½ pt. of water until the liquid is reduced to ¾ pt. Allow to cool to 100 F., and after staining, place the balls for five minutes in a solution of 1 oz. of sulphate of iron in 1 qt. of water.

(3) Make a decoction with water and 1 lb. of galls and 2lb. of logwood. The balls require a long immersion in this, and afterwards an immersion of a few hours in acetate of iron.

Not sure whether logwood, or galls for that matter, are commercially available these days, but if anyone knows a cue-maker will. In any case, looking at the active ingredients may give you some additional ideas to help with your experiments, especially when trying to achieve a level of permanence.