Woodworking chemistry

Afternoon everyone…..

I in the process of making a really wild designed desk for someone. It’s a design that I came up with years ago, but never made. I did a little alteration to the original design to suit the needs of the customer.

Example I’m not at all a fan of pencil drawers on desks, to me they serve no purpose and impede the chair from properly going under the desk.

Well the customer wanted one….

But I suggested incorporating it into the drawers to the right side of the desk. Luckily the customer agreed with my suggestion. I don’t think he would have been happy with the end result if not.

But that’s not what this post is about….

While find woodworking is an art, there is a lot of chemistry involved in the finishing of your projects. Not only with the actual finish but with lightening or darkening the natural color of the wood without using a store bought stain.

Let me introduce you to wood chemistry…..

Now that picture is the end result of my chemistry project. Now let’s go through what it takes to bring out that gorgeous color.

The species of wood being used is Maple. The specific name of this is Curly Maple or in the business (tiger striped maple). Maple is a very pale and clean light wood. It’s extremely strong and the trees grow very quickly and very big. The best hard maple trees come from Canada. Shocker all that maple syrup they produce. The climate is perfect for maple trees in Canada. They also grow in just about any state in the United States aside from desert areas like Arizona, Florida, Nevada.

I exhausted all of my stain samples with this customer, they didn’t like any mixture that I had or had made. They said it didn’t look warm enough and made the graining look muddled.

So I went to the finishing cabinet and pulled out something that I hadn’t used in a long time. It’s called “Iron Nitrate”. It’s a compound used in the tanning and preserving of leather and other clothing material. It’s very corrosive and the fumes are pretty hazardous. Gloves and a respirator mask are a must.

After sanding the piece to the desired finish and smoothness. You take a rag or applicator and wipe this on the wood. Here the sample piece.

You let this dry for 30 minutes or so, until it’s completely dry. Then you take a heat gun and pass over the piece that you put the solution on. And it comes out like this.

It really makes the tiger stripes pop….

Now you saw the final result in the first picture. But here it is once again.

I thought this would be a good post for @trumpman since he’s always posting unusual shit….