More fuming experiments (update 2!)

[simson]

@briarjumper12

in Geermany you can ammonia in the pharmacy.
I think you will need a wood with tannin - Osage, Oak, Black locust, ...


@simson
have you tried to oil  the wood directly with ammonia?

I am still looking for a local source of ammonia with high enough concentration. I read on a furniture building forum that to make fuming effective in maple they were staining it it with tea before fuming. The tea adds tannins apparently. I am gonna give this a try once I track down the right ammonia. I could order it off the web but shipping is outrageous because it is hazardous.

maybe in a drugstore or look for restorer's stuff ...
do not know where ammonia is sold in US
If you don't get a 25% solution, take the 10%. You will get the same result, just the process needs a longer time!

BE CAREFUL WITH THIS STUFF!!!
Work outdoors, and use nitrile gloves. I've got a drop on my right hand and the within  minutes got a hole in my skin!


@Andrew: directly use (brush) is dangerous, stinks, and you will get no satisfying results. A damp is needed and the piece should hang freely in the tube!

[AndrewS]

Of course direct use is dangerous and very stinky... but with the workplate in my kitchen I had good results.
I think it is more like a dye?

I will test it with a "Bratschlauch"   

[DC]

Here's a little test I did. This is yew fumed with household ammonia cleaning fluid. Fumed in an ice cream bucket for almost a day. It's actually a little greener than the picture. More towards a copper preservative color. It penetrated more than 1/8" in that time. You can see where I sanded it on the end. I'll leave it for a few more days and see what happens. It really makes the grain in the sapwood pop.

[bowandarrow473]

DC, that's cool. Might have to try that. Wonder of it would work on the dogwood sapling bow I'm working on?

[DC]

I tried to find a site that listed the tannin content of different woods with no luck. Just try it. I thought I was going to have to wait a week and was surprised when I got this much change overnight with just household ammonia. The color ain't that great(great base for camo though) but we'll see what happens after a few days.

[bowandarrow473]

I know the bark of dogwood contains tannin, maybe the wood does too. TO THE CLEANING SUPPLIES STORE!!!!!!!

[DC]

If you have to go buy some maybe you should look for something stronger. Household is around 5% and you can get 30%. Stronger would work better but remember this is dangerous stuff.

[DC]

48 hrs. This picture was taken in natural light. It looks like dark pressure treated wood. Not sure if that's the look I'm going for.

[GlisGlis]

fuming on beech leftovers
Ammonia 5% for 3 days - 5°C (41°F) circa
just to show that even if ammonia is low concentration it still works even at low temperatures

a small test before trying to fume an all wood mouse trap replica I made