Popular Post Chestnut Posted December 29, 2018 Popular Post Report Share Posted December 29, 2018 So I know Wthighlander posted once about lye and using it on various woods. I was always intrugued by this and wanted to try it for myself. I recently finished adding fronts to my out feed table drawers and was going to use the drawer fronts as my test bed. I took some water and mixed in some lye. I used the 100% lye drain cleaner stuff. I applied it with a paper towel not taking much care and just slopping it on. I did take care with PPE and made sure to have glasses and rubber gloves on. I know lye is dangerous stuff so while I'm playing around I'm not playing around. I also have long sleeves and pants on to make sure to not get any chemical burns. Also Vinegar is an acid and will neutralize a strong base so i had some of that near by just in case. I noticed at first that the red oak turned a nice amber. I really liked how it looked. Then it started to dry and change to an ugly green. I was very disappointed in this because i applied it to the entire thing oopps. Remember that vinegar? Yeah that comes into play here. So i added some shellac to the top drawer to see if it just needed finish to knock down the green.... no dice. Well what happens if the color change isn't just a chemical reaction but is some sort of surface dye as well? I took some vinegar on a rag and wiped down the front. The color changed again. It started to look like it was the old red oak again. I applied more and once it started drying i noticed it was still stained but took care of most of the green. Good enough at least my outfeed table isn't going to be vomit green. It is worth noting that the 3rd drawer face had a piece of white oak in it which didn't turn green and looks great. Applied some shellac to the faces and here is the final look. I tested it on some other woods the most noteable reaction is maple. In the picture below is from top to bottom cedar (uneventful), russian olive (uneventful), Redwood which got super dark and purple toned, then maple that turned an almost cherry looking brown. With finish i noticed that the maple reacted differently to shellac vs poly. I applied shellac to the maple on the right half and the center ish portion looks slightly different where the poly is on the bare wood with lye vs the shellac sealed wood. Other interesting reactions was that steamed walnut looks far worse than regular walnut but neither are better than the origional. With finish, You can see the stick of cherry looks like it had just been speed aged. I prefer the natural aging personally because it's less work. Purple heart looks awful no surprises there. Ash was in some of the pictures and it didn't really do a whole lot. I had some other wood to test but didn't because i didn't think that the reaction would really improve on the original. I left the excess pictures, also this is what happens when i'm home from work for a week and get left in my shop for hours on end. Not sure that it's a good thing. Oh the bottom drawer also has 2 strips of elm if you can pick them out. They reacted quite nicely as well but i never see elm for sale anywhere. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted December 29, 2018 Report Share Posted December 29, 2018 So lesson learned is, leave the drain cleaner for the purpose intended? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted December 29, 2018 Report Share Posted December 29, 2018 I think the lesson is that Drew shouldn't be left unsupervised for such long periods of time. Scary, but the possibilities are endless! The green oak did not mirror my experiment, but most of the others did. The unfortunate reality of chemical reaction wood coloring is that you don't have control of the stuff already in the wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted December 29, 2018 Report Share Posted December 29, 2018 It's been years since I tried using lye to darken cherry. It works but another caution to warn everybody against is leaving any trace of the lye solution behind. Any stray drop can discolor the next wood on that surface even after it dries if/when it gets re-wetted. The lye solution will also eat holes in your clothes. Many of them didn't appear until after I washed those clothes. So keep the area you use it in separated and clean meticulously afterwards. Wear personal protection and wash those clothes separately. Kudos to Chestnut for a fairly methodical test run on a wide range of scrap. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted December 29, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2018 2 hours ago, wdwerker said: So keep the area you use it in separated and clean meticulously afterwards. Wear personal protection and wash those clothes separately. Cleaning afterwards needs to be done with an acid. I think all soaps are basic so they just spread around the lye. Acids react with the lye and neutralize it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drzaius Posted December 29, 2018 Report Share Posted December 29, 2018 So, if vinegar is good for cleaning the lye, then battery acid must be great, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted December 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2018 3 hours ago, drzaius said: So, if vinegar is good for cleaning the lye, then battery acid must be great, right? It's a simple chemical reaction acids and bases react to neutralize each other. A strong acid like that in a battery would have more acid than the base of the lye so you'd have left over acid that you would have to account for. Man I'm trying to remember back to chemistry i took a long time ago bu i want to say that if you have 500 ml of a solution that has a pH of 9 you'd need an equal amount of a solution with a pH of 5. Not sure what kind of battery your talking about because some batteries use an alkaline solution. If your talking about sulfuric acid it'd be like trying to water a flower pot with a garden hose. I also remember learning that it's better to use a week solution to neutralize something so you don't go too far the other way and don't have to deal with more dangerous chemicals. 21 hours ago, wtnhighlander said: I think the lesson is that Drew shouldn't be left unsupervised for such long periods of time. Scary, but the possibilities are endless! The green oak did not mirror my experiment, but most of the others did. The unfortunate reality of chemical reaction wood coloring is that you don't have control of the stuff already in the wood. It was a big success in my opinion. I found something to do with the maple i have that Megan likes. I'm going to do this staining on maple and be able to use the curly stock i have for something. Also it was fun to put some of the chemistry I've learned to use. I couldn't help but constantly be thinking about fight club. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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