Stickley's Fuming?

[Jack Kerouac]

I am looking to finish a piece made from red oak. I would like to use the Stickley finishing techniques minus the fuming. I was watching Norm this weekend and he said something about using the stain mixed with alcohol.

Does anybody have the recipe and/or technique? Yes, I did look at google and came up with different fuming techniques using ammonia but I was looking for the same type of look without that long process.

Thanks.

[Lowell Holmes]

Try this link

[Mike Hide]

Just about any proprietary walnut stain will do or even asphaltum would also do it [Asphaltum has no red tint in it].....mj

[Larry Jaques]

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 22:23:48 -0600, "Lowell Holmes" brought forth from the murky depths:

It takes longer with the above mentioned method of stain, glaze, and then finishing. Fume it overnight and put the finish on the next day. What's long about that?

[Lowell Holmes]

I agree with you, but Jack was asking for the formula to do it with stain.

Maybe Jack is not comfortable dealing with ammonia.

I have read that fuming red oak will give a green cast to the wood. I have never fumed anything, so I don't know.

I will be fuming some quarter sawn white oak in the future though. It is my intention to look for liquid ammonia used in blue line machines. It used to be available from blueprint supply houses.

:-)

[Steve Turner]

I only tried fuming one time (on a test piece of white oak) and it turned out looking like treated lumber; a yucky green color. I've read that fuming in colder weather can cause this, and warm (or hot) temperatures are required to get the chocolate brown hues. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

[Gregg Germain]

"Stickley's Fuming"????

Was his temper legendary? ;^)

--- Gregg

My woodworking projects:

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of my 82 year old Herreshoff S-Boat sailboat:

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[Biff Steele]

I recall reading some lit about how to do it and it called for a special type of ammonia. I asked my local paint-guy about getting some and got nothing but strange looks back.

What type of ammonia are you supposed to use?

Expir>I am looking to finish a piece made from red oak. I would like to use the

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[Grant P. Beagles]

Red oak turns a sort of green when it is fumed. Stickley used white oak. White oak turns a nice medium brown when fumed YMMV.

Grant

Jack Kerouac wrote:

[Mo' Sawdust]

Fuming red oak usually leads to a bit of a greenish tint.

[WebsterSteve]

Yes that's true. However some orange shellac will negate the green color. Here's more than you probably want to know:

[Larry Jaques]

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 14:57:35 GMT, Steve Turner brought forth from the murky depths:

I haven't fumed yet, but the guys who have say the look before the finish goes on is horrible. The finish deepens it to the warm, brown tones. Did you put varnish on the fumed piece, or just give up on it.

No idea.

[Jack Kerouac]

What I had found on the net was about an eight step process. Starting with rubbing the piece down with denatured alcohol to raise the grain. Then hit it with 250 grit. Fume it. sand it. stain it...and a few more I can't remember off the top of my head. Ending with 0000 steel wool wax/buff.

[Jack Kerouac]

It's not so much as being comfortable as seeing how easy Norm made it out to seem without even using the fuming technique. It "wood" appear that he ended up with the same result.

[Fly-by-Night CC]

I've fumed a number of things out of White Oak, Red Oak, Cherry and Walnut (with more experimentation to come). My process after finish sanding is to fume it, Knock back the little fuzzies that do seem to rise (320 grit), and then oil & varnish it. As Larry said, it looks pretty disappointing when you first pull it out of the fumes - all dark, gray and "Whahappentomypiece!" Once you hit it with the oil it gorgifies. (And yes, I've also had Red Oak turn greenish, but some garnet shellac will counter it.)

[Steve Turner]

Yeah, I tried a few coats of garnet shellac, but I wasn't impressed with the results. I haven't given up yet, I just haven't used White Oak for anything since that test. I'm sure I'll experiment with it again sometime soon.