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Ebonizing Wood
By George Vondriska
Photos by author
Posted September 19, 2011
The next time you’re working on a project that calls for a dark, opaque accent, a piece that looks like ebony, try ebonizing wood for just the right look. It’s a fairly simple process, but works better on some woods than others. This story will give you what you need to know to ebonize wood in your shop.
Ebonizing wood is not the same thing as simply coloring wood with ebony stain. When you ebonize wood you’re causing a chemical reaction that makes the material turn black. The benefit to this process is opacity. When wood is stained you can sometimes see the grain through the stain. When wood is correctly ebonized it becomes pitch black, and you won’t be able to see grain through the color.
It’s important to understand that this is more art than science. You should definitely experiment before using this technique on a project.
Suitable Woods
Ebonizing depends on the wood having a lot of tannin content. As a rule hardwoods have more tannins than softwoods, and dark hardwoods more than light hardwoods. That makes oak, cherry and walnut good candidates for ebonizing. Birch and maple are not good candidates, but I’ll show you a way to work around their shortage of tannins.
Even among the usual suspects there’s tannin and there’s tannin. One piece of walnut may ebonize completely differently than another. You’ll need to experiment with the pieces you’re using to see what it takes to get the results you want.
What You Need
Ingredients for ebonizing are all household items. Tea, steel wool, and vinegar. 
Ebonizing Requires Iron Acetate
The reaction with tannins is caused by iron acetate being brushed on the wood. Don’t run off to the hardware store looking for it. It’s simple to make.
Start by washing the steel wool with soap and water to remove any oils. If you don’t do this the oil may prevent a reaction with the vinegar. With the steel wool in a glass jar, pour vinegar over it. You’ll know it’s working when bubbles are coming 
off the steel wool. Bubbles should start to form within minutes of the vinegar contacting the steel wool. You can cap the jar, but cap it loosely. The gas must be allowed to escape.
The steel wool and vinegar need some time to react; a couple days would be good, a week would be better. If you suddenly realize you need iron acetate for a project NOW, you can accelerate the reaction process by heating the mix in a double boiler. Gently heat the mix for a couple hours, then let it sit overnight. You should be able to use
it the next day.
I bought the hot plate for my shop at a thrift store. It’s earned its keep a number of times.
In addition to making iron acetate, make yourself a nice pot of tea. Steep 10 tea bags in a quart of hot water to make a really strong brew. The tea will be used to add tannins to wood.
A good jar of iron acetate will look pretty icky.
Remove particles from the iron acetate by pouring it through a coffee filter. 
Do Some Testing
Brush the iron acetate on to some sample boards and see what you get. Results are not instantaneous. Elapsed time on these boards is two minutes. The tannin-heavy woods-walnut, oak, cherry-are much darker than the other woods.
Want things to get even darker? Add tea. Brush tea on to the wood and let it dry a little. I find results are best if the tea is slightly damp to the touch when brushing iron acetate over it.
The tea really helps. The top board is birch with tea and iron acetate on the right, iron acetate only on the left. The bottom board is walnut, raw on the left and iron acetate only on the right. The center board is walnut with tea under the iron acetate. It’s significantly darker and more opaque then the other walnut board.
You can also brush tea on top of the iron acetate. The bottom line is that tea has a lot of tannins in it, so it’s a tannin-additive for low tannin woods.
A Few Notes
Ebonizing only affects the surface so machining, such as routed profiles, should be done before ebonizing.
The ebonizing process may raise the grain, especially if you use tea. It’s a good idea to do a pre-ebonizing grain raise. Brush on a little water and, after the wood dries, sand off the whiskers. That should prevent you from having to sand the ebonized piece and taking the risk of sanding off the ebonizing.
The iron acetate needs to get into the wood, so don’t sand finer than 220-grit or you may prevent the liquid from soaking in and having the chance to react.
Give yourself ample opportunity to experiment with this process before using it on a project. Keep the test boards and record how you made them.
Click here to watch a related Ebonizing Wood video clip.
26 Comments
This is going to come in handy for guitar fretboards - thanks for sharing this!
How long can I store the iron acetate?
The iron acetate, as far as I have seen, doesn't have a shelf life. As with any finish, it's best to do a test on scrap if you're not certain. Contributing Editor Dave Munkittrick has some that's about a year old, and still working. G
I have never tried ebonizing wood yet, but I did read once that soaking small wood parts in the steel wool/vinegar solution would work too. Has anyone tried that?
Just what I was looking for. Thanks
I tried this process on some white oak picture frames, and it worked great. I used multiple applications, then covered with a gloss polyacrylate finish. This is a superb idea.
Thanks for the info. I try it out. I really like the looks of the project and would like to see a step-by-step on that.
I used this to add richness in combination with a walnut stain on oak. It looked amazing. What would have taken half a dozen coats to achieve the darkness of the stain, was done with a single application of iron acetate with a layer of walnut stain over it. great tip!
If floors are ebonized can they be restained back to a lighter wood color?
Since ebonizing chemically changes the color of the wood, you can't simply stain over it to change color. If it's truly ebonized it will be opaque black. You could paint it to change it's color. If you want to get to the original wood grain you'll have to sand to a point where the ebonized good is sanded off, then you can start staining. If you choose this route be sure there's enough wood to sand so you don' t sand through. G
I am trying to build a TV stand and a bar and bookcases to match some furniture we bought from a chain store. Theirs is ebony color on oak veneer and they say is water borne lacquer. Many forums recommended ebonizing my oak veneer and then using ebony stain with a final clear coat. Do you recommend that approach?
Either approach would work. If you ebonize the oak you could then clear coat over it with what ever finish you normally use. Adding tone to lacquer and effectively spray painting the project black would also work. I recommend that you experiment on scrap with both approaches and pick the one that works the best for you, and also provides the best match for the existing pieces.
this thing leaves a horrible vinegar odor stay away.
I've used this a number of times and haven't noticed a long term residual odor of any kind. Like many finishes it creates a bit of a smell in the shop for a while, but that goes away. G
dude i got this rosewood (for a guitar fretboard) and i want to apply this, i want the rosewood more dark? did you try this on rosewood?
I haven't tried this on rosewood. I recommend you try it on a piece of scrap and see if it produces the affect you want. Let us know.... G
john posted above : "done with a single application of iron acetate with a layer of walnut stain over it" Should this stain be spirit, turps, or water based for best results?
I wanted to do this to my cabinets. do I need to make sure all previouse stain on the cabinets is removed before ebonizing?
Anything that seals the wood will prevent the iron acetate from working. I recommend you do a test, but my guess is that the old stain will need to be removed. G
Hi, We've tried ebonizing both red and white oak. There are light streaks where the open grain comes to the surface. Is this normal and if so how can we make it all black?
I haven't had this problem. My last ebonized white oak project was completely opaque black. Sorry I can't help you.
I am thinking about using this process on the fretboard of a guitar. Will the frets be Ok if I just brush the whole thing? Or will they dye/stain somehow as well? please advise :)
I'm building a table with a natural curly cherry top and two shelves also of curly cherry. The legs, rails, etc, will be ebonized cherry. The ebonized pieces have to be done prior to assembly. The bottom two shelves or tiers will be glued into mortises in the legs. Anyone have any experience gluing ebonized wood or un-ebonized wood to ebonized wood? Will titebond work or do I need to use titebon III or something else?
As a rule you can't surfaces together that have any form of finish on them. Your best bet to make sure you have adhesion on an ebonized surface would be to ask Titebond for their recommendations. http://www.titebond.com/index.aspx Titebond Customer Service 1-800-347-4583 G
I don't think the iron acetate solution will affect the frets, but you should do an experiment first to make sure. You could also ebonized the fret board first, then seat the frets. G
Add a quarter cup of Hydrogen Peroxide per liter (cheap stuff from your local pharmacy $1/L) to speed the formation of Iron or Ferric Acetate from days to seconds without a hot-plate. http://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/5025/what-is-this-colorless-ferric-solution