Fuming a Finish - Cool, but Dangerous
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- Опубликовано: 18 янв 2025
- Fuming with ammonia is a finishing technique made popular by Gustav Stickley and other builders in the Arts & Crafts style. Dale Barnard talks about the finish -pros and cons. For more from Dale on finishing, go to bit.ly/Fearless..., For everything woodworking, visit www.popwood.com.
I got my ammonia at a surveyor's supply store locally. $8/gallon in 2005. I prefer the added differentiation of the grain in white oak when it has =not= been painted with tannic acid.
I've had good results fuming mahogany in a barrel using 10% ammonia for about 48 hours, neutralizing the the odor by fuming the wood in another barrel using white vinegar for a few hours. After a light sanding with 400 wet and dry paper, two coats of thinned out shellac and Briwax are applied with a light buffing. The results are very satisfying.
Superb video - thanks so much for sharing your knowledge - priceless
Excellent video! Even though merely a trailer apparently :) A question: what were the traditional finishes that were supposed to give the furniture centuries of longevity, excluding shellac and laquer? Another one: can shellac be applied so thin to achieve both - significant protection of wood and wood-hand contact upon inspection? Thank you.
what is the ratio of water ti tannic acid?
With your camera at an oblique angle to the wood samples I can’t tell what it really looks like because of the glare of the light that reflects when you shoot something at an oblique angle that has a finish on it. I can’t believe you did all the samples using quartersawn oak which is much more expensive than plain sawn oak and you never even mention it.
Out of curiosity, have you tried wiping the aqueous ammonia onto the wood (using appropriate safety precautions) to see how quickly it reacts for the tanning process to occur?
Curious myself, ?.
I've tried that. It was quite successful in a short period of time on white oak using 3% ammonia. Only reason I don't always do it is it's another grain raising and sanding step, unlike fuming. And I've applied tannic acid to light colored woods to get the reaction, but never thought to try it with white oak. Really seems to make a difference.
Michael Anderson thanks for the info. Typically after putting a coat or two of 1 to 2 pound cut shellac I'm sanding to knock back nibs or raised grain so I don't think I would mind this extra step for the projects I'm doing. Plus, I'd rather work with the more dilute ammonia.
I don’t think it’s a tanning process. the tannic acid is already in the oak naturally.
Any advice on using fuming for chopping boards, is it food safe?
I doubt that you want tannic acid in your food. have you noticed hard rock maple is the standard wood for chopping blocks at butchers?
Given the time to work I wonder if old piss could be a slightly less nasty alternative
I don’t understand what the rush was to get this video out that you couldn’t wait two days to properly demonstrate the actual subject of the video other than it’s a promotion for your other videos and your book
Great video. I have been fuming oak for years with good success. I an now working with Mulberry on a lathe and wondering if you know if that wood has enough tannin to allow fuming. Thanks for the help.
Soo.... you're using ammonia to color wood without the hassle of staining, but then have to go through all this with tanic acid, and essentially take far longer? How about just using TransTint in alcohol? Only takes a few minutes and has deep penetration.
I used to date a woman years ago that wore perfume so strong it would have the same effect on oak furniture when she walked into a room - you should've seen the furniture in her apartment. She could set off a smoke alarm.
Maybe her natural body odour is just that hideous she needed to be doused with perfume.
Imagine what she would have smelled like without all that perfume! 💩💩😷
I knew my cat was good for something
Raising grain is not always a negative. Shoui Sugi Ban raises grain for effect. On one very nice piece of oak furniture from the 1890s and in the large vestibule to a queen Anne Victorian in San Francisco I have seen a technique on oak that is amazing and I believe it to be the the Victorian method of fuming oak but this looks boring compared to that. Wish I knew someone that knows that technique. I tried to buy the piece of furniture at the auction but it went for over $3000 and already had a larger much nicer renaissance carved oak curved glass R. J. Horner china cabinet that had been in my 1880 Victorian since it was bought new in the 1890s so it was in mint condition and was worth about $10,000 so I didn’t really need it But if I had it it might be easier to find someone that knows how it was done. I’m actually wondering if it was fumed black and then lightly gone over with a diluted light colored paint which was put on and quickly wiped off. Whatever it was it wasn’t a fluke because I saw this exact same affect in the vestibule of a San Francisco Victorian that luckily had survive not being painted over for over 100 years but within a year or so of me discovering it some idiot painted over the fumed oak.
Love the woodworking videos, especially for novices like myself. This is cool, but it seems like a just as much work as buying a traditional stain and a brush.
There are some fine teachers on RUclips: people who are fluent and posess great communication skills. Or there's this.
Would definitely have to keep that under lock and key if you have kids in the house!
Lol...love the reference to little old England and methane...however, not I think true...back in the ‘olden days’ cattle barns, if anyone had them, would have not had windows, and would have been pretty much open to the air, and a few cattle...’flatulating’, (as methane is a gas mostly arising from decomposition of vegetable matter in their stomachs)....would certainly have been insufficient in the air for any miraculous changes in any timber colouration...and it is unlikely that any such items of cabinetry, if they had any, would be positioned or made in a cattle stall...by the way, commoners mostly had sheep and pigs...which were grazed outdoors...but a nice tale nonetheless... 😳🤔😉😂
Ammonia is from urine. Methane has nothing to do with it.
Yeah seems more likely some woodworker left an oak stick standing up in a bucket of urine and noticed the effect.
@@TristanJCumpole exactly the same applies… what you think brits used cattle piss on their furniture or made it in cattle piss soden places… !! Perhaps you think they soaked their hewn timber in it before using it… Your dreaming mate…
@@przybyla420 really!
Yeah.