The process of ebonizing wood is actually a fairly simple chemical reaction.  Not to tempt the wrath of my high school chemistry teacher (thank you for putting up with me, Mr. Oyer) but it works something like this.  The vinegar breaks down the steel wool into something resembling a smelly rust.  Wood has some kind of compound in it called tannin, and oak has more tannin than most other types of wood.  When the tannin is exposed to the rust, it causes the wood to turn jet black.

I took a piece of oak, stood it up in the vacuum chamber, then added the fluid until about a third of the wood was submerged.  Then I turned on the vacuum, hoping the pressure would draw the ebonizing fluid up, through the grain of the wood, resulting in a vase that was black at the top with lines of black “flowing” down toward the bottom.  What a great plan!  After about a week, you could see the blackness had come all the way through the wood, so I figured it must be as done as it needed to be.  When I started turning it, ALL of the darkness turned away and it looked like a simple, oak vase.  Bummer!  I hollowed out the vase about halfway down (to make it thinner) and stuck it back in the juice for three days, then left it under pressure for another three days.  It’s in the kiln drying now, so I should have a final product pretty soon.

After a couple days of drying, I couldn’t wait anymore and did the final turning.  WOW!  I really like the way the black came through what would normally have been a plain, blonde looking piece of oak.

After ebonizing the piece of cedar, I suddenly had the urge to see what the process would do to other kinds of wood.  I found the last piece of willow that I had in the shop.  Willow is either the easiest wood to turn that yeilds a pattern kinda like an ambrosia maple, or it’s an absolutely nasty, chippy, cracky, punky, poor excuse for firewood.

I tossed it in the pot, added the fluid and put it under pressure.  After three days, it too looked like a lump of charcoal.  After a week in the kiln, I took it down to the shop and started turning.  Turns out that willow doesn’t really suck up the ebonizing fluid like I thought it would, so I put it back in the vacuum chamber, let it soak for three days, then left it for another three days under pressure.  When I re-turned it, I realized the color had indeed gone through the rest of the blank.  That was the good news.  The bad news was that a series of cracks developed on one side of the bowl that my mentor said was “un-fixable”.  I was left with designer firewood.

After staring at the piece for a couple of days, I decided to mix up some black epoxy putty and fill the holes.  At worst, the piece would fly apart on the lathe at some point, but that could be fixed by wearing a face mask and being a little less aggressive with my cuts.  At best, I’d end with a piece that showed off the sudden color changes, with the filled cracks “blending in” with the overall look of the bowl.

Here’s what came out of the process.  I’m extremely pleased with this one!  Not enough to go looking for another chunk of willow to turn, but enough to start looking for more wood that can be ebonized and turned.

When my first daughter gave birth to my first grandchild, the theme for her baby shower was chevrons.  I figured out how to make a segmented bowl with a chevron pattern that could be used to hold cards for the gift table.  I was pretty pleased with the final product, then figured I’d customize it a bit to make it personal.  I carved out my grandson’s name in the bottom, inlaid it with ebonized walnut dust, and just because, I burned a little message to my unborn grandson on the bottom.  Alexa loved it!  My grandson has it now and plays with it to hold the wooden Easter eggs I turned for him.  Well, that started a tradition…

When my second daughter had my second grandchild, one of the first questions was “When will she get her bowl”?  Apparently, it was now a foregone conclusion that was going to happen.  The first problem is that my daughter wouldn’t name the baby until she came out.  Her logic:  “I don’t want to name her Sofia if she comes out and doesn’t look like a Sofia”.  Guess you can’t argue with a mother’s logic.  The second problem was that Megan had the baby at the worst possible time for me to get any work done in the shop, because of a whole host of other things all competing for time.  When I told her it might be awhile, she said “no problem, dad, I know you’re really busy”, but those big, sad, eyes said “my baby needs something you made just for her, too”.  It has always been hard to argue with those eyes.

So now, a month or so after the birth, the bowl is finished.  Like James’ bowl, this one also has her name inlaid in the bottom and a message on the bottom.  Since this one was made after the birthday, I went ahead and put her birthday by her name, too.  The material used for the pink inlay is colored epoxy putty.  Even though Megan was adamant that her daughter wasn’t going to be forced to wear pink everyday, the color looks great with her head full of dark black hair and the pink color actually matches the color of the first hair bow she wore.  Very happy with the way this turned out.

Now to start thinking about the bowl for my third grandchild…