Working with exotic woods can be expensive ... IF they are even available. One of the solutions to this is coloring your wood to simulate an exotic wood, and to try and get the color match as close as you can, and that's what I am doing today.
I have used aniline dyes in the past to simulate Ebony wood, which is often hard to get, and the last time I checked it was in the $150+ per board foot, one of the most expensive wood, but if you want a pure black colored wood, that is what it is.2
One of the common reasons for wanting Ebony wood is to use it as a "highlight" for embellishing the look of wood projects, such Banding or Inlay work, and using Ebony in combination with lighter color woods like Maple or Holly.
Here are some somewhat samples of exotic woods. The far right is Premium Ebony, pure black. The middle is actually Rosewood, but looks similar to what an Ebony "Select" (a cheaper, lesser high quality) Ebony would look like and the left image is a variety of a Walnut wood.
Using these woods in combination can create some stunning banding and inlay work, which I have done very little of in the past, but something I want to work on, but in practicing, I don't want to risk wasting very expensive exotic woods, so such as below, so the next best thing for me is to make my own, simulated colored woods.
To "Ebonize" some woods, I want to experiment with a few different products. In the past I have used Aniline Dye, and it has been OK, but not really the results I have wanted ... a rich rich, deep black while still retaining the grain of the wood. So here is the lineup or dyes to compare, from left to right, A Milwaukee Chisel tip thick Felt Pen, a bottle of India Ink, and on the right a concentrate mixture of Aniline Dye that has been mixed at double to recommended dilute, the power should have made about a quart of working dye, mine is half that amount.
The very first thing I did was to coat my test board with the three items. Sadly it appears that the India Ink bled up into the Aniline dye so I ended up making the blank panel above the Aniline Dye label ALSO an Aniline Dye area.
Its hard to tell from the picture below but the in real life the Aniline Dye was easily the weakest in color with the India Ink and the Felt Pen being much darker, though the Felt pen had a tinge of very dark purple to it ...
The test below is ONLY RAW COLOR there is NO top finish added yet.
Below ... still with NO top finish added, now is the time for a scratch or sanding test which I performed using 220 grit sandpaper and a 1.5 pound weight, which I determined is about the weight I would use in a light sanding to reduce roughness from water-borne dyes.
Below is how I conducted the test, first with three pulls across the panel, which did not appear to cut through any of the colorants.
Next I did 3 more pulls and yes, there was an indication that all the colorants there was the small amount of colorant removal as you can see in the picture below.
Keep in mind this was 220 Grit, which for this step, I would never to in real life I would look for 380 or even 600 grit for any removal or cutting through lifted grain.
Next it was on to the top coat, Osmo 3043 Hard Oil, my go top finish.
On the first application, there was a small amount of dye on the application cloth I used on all 3 colorants.
Second application of Osmo, again a there was a small bit of colorant showing on the application cloth from all colorants.
Third and final coat, no colorant on the application cloth from any colorant.
But WOW, WOW, WOW... look at how the felt Milwaukee Felt pen stood up. It was almost undisguisable from the India Ink which also performed excellently. Very Impressive.
Most of you may not have seen this item before, I happened to be picking up some glue from one of my local suppliers when I spotted these at the checkout and though, Hmmmm, maybe that would be interesting to try for an Ebonizing Test ...
Another test I ran during this testing was to see if using Shellac over top of the dried colorants would stop the bleeding before applying the Osmo finished. Shellac is of referred to as an excellent undercoat and I do use it occasionally, turns out ... Shellac was excellent as the first top coat stopped all incidences of the colorant coming of with the Osmo application cloth.
When possible, I would try to use a darker wood if available, but failing that, India Ink and the Milwaukee Felt pen appear to do an outstanding job on Ebonizing even lighter colored woods.
Colin Knecht
woodworkweb
