I didn’t take any photos of the ebonizing process originally, but since several people expressed an interest I made a little video today. It shows the process in real time on a piece of off-cut Walnut from one of the legs.

Ebonizing is a simple process that lots of people do and it works well on any naturally high tannin wood. I understand that with the addition of outside tannin in the form of a tea wash it can be effective on non tannin bearing woods as well although I have no experience with that.

My first experience with the process was probably the same as yours. ……. wondering why the oak trim on my boat was going all black everywhere there was a nail. When I found out that you could harness this disaster to do your bidding I was intrigued and have since used it many times mostly on Oak and Walnut. The first instructions I read said to add the worst, flakiest rusty iron or steel you could find to a jar full of white vinegar and wait three weeks. That worked amazingly well but since I have found many references to using steel wool and that is what I’m now using.

The process is fast and easy.

http://youtu.be/mqt2bhvQ4-Q

Here are some before and after photos.

Next up was to get the edge molding done. I don’t use the shaper that much but it does such a nice job on these.

I made the molding to trap the leg ends and to overlap the bottom plywood base for good glue area.

On to the burl Matching. This was another point of consultation with my customer. We looked at the available Walnut burls on Certainly Wood’s website and she chose the one she liked best. I ordered eight pieces for two identical matches in a size more than double what we needed to give us lots of choices.

When it arrived she visited the shop again and we got out my acrylic mirrors and chose a sweet match. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of the match but that doesn’t matter because I have the actual match to show you.

I’ve droned on long enough for one night here I guess. Next one should get the project pretty much finished up.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul