wood not taking stain

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I've made a walking staff from ironwood (American Hornbeam). I tried using the steel wool dissolved in vinegar but it hardly stains the wood. It takes it better at the root-ball, but the rest of the wood barely takes the stain.

I don't know if ironwood is one that displays much chatoyance or not. If it does I'd like to bring that out. So I'd rather not use the Minwax pigmented stains.

Does anyone have much experience working with American Hornbeam (a.k.a. ironwood, musclewood)?

 

[chawbeef]

No experience with Iron wood but have used "vinegaroon" plenty on Maple. Did you apply a source of heat after applying the stain?? That and another coat or two may work................Chawbeef

 

[Black Hand]

Tannins in the wood are essential for the stain to work well (Maple has tannins). Tannic acid can be used to enhance the stain in Maple.

Is Ironwood high in tannins....?

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I don't know what the tannin content in ironwood is.

There are places that do pick up the stain and the "vinegaroon" reacts well. Particularly around knots and the root-ball, wherever the endgrain is exposed it seems.

But wherever the grain is sideways it doesn't show much response.

I've tried adding tannin by rubbing it down with coffee before applying the vinegaroon.

Would fruit-based stains such as grape, beet, or berry juice destroy the chatoyance?

 

[Zonie]

From what I find on the web, American Hornbeam has tannin in the bark but very little in the wood.

What little tannin it has can be brought out by applying a wash of water and lye. The lye causes the tannin near the surface to rise.

This lye water treatment is useful for darkening many types of light colored wood but I don't know how well it will work with Hornbeam.

If you try it remember, lye water will attack hair , skin and your eyes so be careful and use a nylon brush to apply it.

One coat will do just about all that can be done so don't waste your time making repeated applications.

After letting the treated wood dry, apply a generous coat of vinegar to neutralize the lye.

If this doesn't give you the color you want (view the wood after wetting it with water to see what a coating of oil will do), you can use any of the alcohol based wood stains.
These penetrate even a hard wood nicely and multiple coats can be applied.

I like to thin the alcohol based stains and apply several coats to sneak up on the desired final color.

One of my favorites for staining maple is Birchwood Casey Walnut water base stain.
It is available at most gun stores.

Solar-Lux is another good stain available at wood working stores but it is rather pricey.

Another good stain is made by Laurel Mountain, available from Track of the Wolf.

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/392/1

 

[Micah Clark]

Zonie . . . I am glad you posted this . . . I know you are an advocate of a lye wash before staining . . . I have my bottle of lye that I may use on the fowler I am building because of what you have said and shown of your results . . . It's a somewhat plain stock with some curl, but not as much as I expected from Chambers . . . Perhaps more will appear when I stain.

I am strongly considering Aqua Fortis to see what happens. Have you ever used Lye then AF, rather than stain ??

 

[Zonie]

I used aqua fortis once and had poor luck with it so, no, I have not tried using lye water and AF together.

As I mentioned in our PT, no amount of staining will create stripes that are not there in the wood but, what is there will be enhanced by the lye water.

Now, how much can be gained on Hornbeam is another thing.
A very hard, tight grained white wood may not see much gain from the lye water.

Oh. I forgot to mention a favorite stain used by a lot of people in the Craftsman area.

A good leather dye can also be used although I strongly recommend thinning it with denatured alcohol first.
It's pretty strong all by itself.

As for Minwax "stains", I think it works pretty good on a pine bookcase. Beyond that, I don't have much use for it.

 

[Black Hand]

Would fruit-based stains such as grape, beet, or berry juice destroy the chatoyance?

These types of stains are not light-fast and will fade. An alcohol/solvent-based stain will probably work the best.

Coffee may not contain enough tannins. Wood can be ebonized using tannic acid powder dissolved in water followed by vinegaroon. I suspect the ease of staining (or success) will depend on the type of wood...

 

[akapennypincher]

Follow Zonie's advice, I have seen his rifles, very very nice guns.