Fuming it is! *PIC*

[grampa simpson]

Can you post the technique on using ferrous sulphate?? And where you purchased it. I would love to try it out.

Thanks,

Grampa Simpson

[Larry Jaques]

On 03 Nov 2003 01:37:50 GMT, [e-mail] (Charlie Self) brought forth from the murky depths:

I still feel that the Arizona warden had the right idea with the tent prison. NOBODY wants to go back THERE! It also saves the multi-billion dollar cost of cement prison buildings and multi-million dollar entertainment/workout/libraries for each building. Win/win, wot?

[Doug Winterburn]

'Tis the Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpio. Several years ago, a reporter was asking him what he thought about the poor inmates in the tents when it was 115 degrees outside. He said it was probably 125 inside the tents so being outside wasn't so bad. He says he doesn't run a correctional facility - he runs a jail.

[Jim]

Dave, I've been wanting to try fuming (on white oak) but I can't find anyplace that will ship the ammonia. Do you have a source?

Thanks, jim "David F. Eisan" wrote in news:yGsob.130410$ [e-mail]:

[Andy Dingley]

Just go and buy the stuff at your local ironmongers. You only need 25%

- you can buy this as a domestic cleaner, it's not some terrifying industrial cleaner.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

[Andrew Barss]

:>Has anyone fumed maple?

: No, but I have used ferrous sulphate to try and bring out birds eye : figure, and I'm currently experimenting with nitric acid / ferric : nitrate stains and heat (18th century gunsmithing techniques).

: Logwood dye on maple is nice. Comes out silver grey and looks nothing : like maple, but it's a nice '30s style decorative highlight on a : light-coloured piece.

Where do you get logwood dye? And is the stuff hazardous?

-- Andy Barss

[Andy Dingley]

I don't have a "technique", I'm still trying to get it right. Sometimes it works, more often it turns the whole surface a muddy grey.

I got the idea from "Classic Wood Finishing" by George Frank

This is the best guide to real French-style French polishing I've ever read, and worth getting for that alone.

Most of the book is about colouring wood. Frank did a lot of experimenting, and illustrates many of the results (lots of colour pictures in this book). However he doesn't always describe the process, and his chemical knowledge is frequently inaccurate. He's the only ebeniste I've seen who could do much useful with logwood though, let alone the infamously unstable alkanet root.

The birdseye maple is just there as an illustration. The process is to make the surface moist and highly alkaline with caustic soda (lye), then apply a solution of ferrous sulphate. My experience is that you need to be quick with this, and have a reasonably strong solution. The colouring is most effective around the "end grain" of the curl and eyes, and you need to get the whole thing coloured and neutralised before the whole piece of timber starts to turn grain, long grain too. Slowness or excess dilution allows the whole piece to turn pale grey.

I keep lots of assorted ferrous salts around for doing copper patination, including ferrous sulphate. Ferrous salts are cheap and of low hazard, so they're quite easy to get hold of (there is no problem in only commercial labs using them). If you can't find a retail chemical supplier locally, try asking school chemistry teachers where they shop.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

[Andy Dingley]

You buy logwood as chips, then boil it up yourself. Couple of spoonfuls in a tin can, enough water to cover it and simmer for ten minutes. Needs to be used with a mordant (tin chloride, alum) and the mordant choice and pH influences the colour. Gives some very interesting colours on oak, even some nice blues, and the oak's tannin is usually enough to act as a mordant on its own.

I don't know about any minor toxicity problems, but it's certainly not a hazard I worry about.

I think it's Mexican in origin these days, but it's not hard to get hold of from web-order alchemy suppliers. Other sources that woodworkers should be aware of are pagans and incense makers. You can find dyestuffs like dragon's blood or all of the resins like copal and sandarac that you need for reproducing 18th century spirit varnishes.

Now if anyone knows how the hell to do anything useful with alkanet root, then I'd love to hear it ! Boil that up in oil and you get a beautiful deep crimson, but it fades in a few days, even in darkness. Nothing I know will preserve it.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

[Jim]

Andy Dingley wrote in news: [e-mail]:

What is ironmongers? I have checked around in the local stores for cleaning supplies and nothing is even close to 25%...

[Charlie Self]

Jim Schatte asks:

I think "ironmongers" is British for hardware store.

If you can't locate it there, check out any store locally that does extensive blueprint copying. The word is not much is done with ammonia these days, but in some areas the word is wrong. Ammonia used to bring up blueprints is plenty strong.

I think regular house grade ammonia will also work: it just takes a lot longer.

Charlie Self

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas J. Watson

[Brent Slone]

Good question, David.

I work with a lot of cherry, cut from my dad's farm, and I've had that problem with Lye-darkened cherry. Over time, it appears to get darker and darker.

Brent