Good morning Winky. Great topic ---- I spent about a dozen years as a finish carpenter, I never did any fuming my self. In some of the beautiful old Homes I worked in you could spot the fumed furniture nothing else can replicate the rich look it produces. You are correct on white oak as I know red oak does not fumigate well. Thanks Andy
@@WinkysWorkshop Hi Winky, today's video index made me want to revisit this video. The camera just doesn't pick up the full beauty. This finish on quarter sawn oak is amazing -- I don't even know how to explain it. A few things that are really interesting is the depth of the finish and how well it holds up. I've seen furniture that was almost a hundred years old and still looks great. If something gets nicked you can blend it in with sandpaper or scraping and it will still look fine.
@@andyZ3500s - Hello Andy. I agree, fuming oak is totally amazing and at least on a small scale very easy to do. I have maybe 80 bf of quarter and rift sawn white oak and I'm getting very selective about how I use it. I'd love to find another log but I'm out of space. I just put about 250 bf of Tulip Poplar in the shed and it's full. Poplar is amazing but it's more of a utility lumber.
Very nice. Like you said, the ammonia reacts to tannin in the oak. You can stain woods with low or no tannin by staining with a water stain made of black tea prior to fuming. Regular black tea is loaded with it. I tried it on a maple gun stock and it gave it a look that only comes from 150 years of exposure to the world. After fuming the tea stained maple looked fuzzy green, but after oil finish it came out nice and brown. One word of caution, do your fuming in a controlled area. I did it in my little reloading shed and the fumes attacked the brass cups of some primers I had nearby. They became embrittled and ruined the bolt of a rifle I shot them in. Sent the primers to Federal and they did a lab analysis and found "stress/corrosion" cracking due to exposue to.....Ammonia!
Thanks for the info on the Ammonia I've heard of people using tea but never tried it. I had no idea about brass... although I never smelled the ammonia in the tub I did it in. It was sealed very well.
High Winky.I have never heard of fuming since I fumed my school project an English Oak side table 68 years ago back in the Uk,I was a little disappointed with the colour not as dark as I would have wished,how ever oiling did improve matters,I think your attention to the sealing every thing down is the answer and has given you such a great result.all the best from Australia.
You are probably correct about sealing. Also, after 3 days it was probably dark enough. I wanted to see how much darker it would get so I replenished the ammonia and fumed for another 3 days. After applying the oil finish it was too dark in my opinion.
Gday mate, I have never seen this before and to be honest I never know about, beautiful results though, once you put a little oil on the grain will look more nicer again, thanks for sharing mate, Matty 🇦🇺
Really nice outcome on the wood. I work with ammonia nitrate, its very strong and hard to breathe in. But it wont hurt you. You could have put that ammonia in a heated water bowl to make it chooch better.
I read that a century or so ago it was common to do bank and office interiors with intricately carved panels and moldings of white oak then to suspend metal pans of amonia over candles or some other small heat source, close up the room and let it fume for a few days; the target color was a kind of honey brown when finished with linseed oil. On the darker side after years of exposure to ammonia from animal urine and manure the old oak planks and beams in stables were turned nearly black. And, as noted by others, fumed oak grain stains in almost the opposite way that modern stains color the grain [almost a photo negative effect in some cases].
Thanks... You got it. I sold the machine to a guy in Australia (I live in Kentucky). Postage was crazy high. He made this video: ua-cam.com/video/Aw72um6S7P4/v-deo.html
Hi wood is not our friend, to be here is to share I am willing to try to see that wood can be our friend, as like with metals so here we are and here we will learn from you. White oak hey I know about white oak plywood veneer panels so what is this ammonia treatment. My panels are bleached white like, you are making your material brown wow 2 weeks and I am learning something neat (never new about being able to do this always thought it was just staining) what some dark rich wood that turned out to be. Really a very nice look and some really nice work from you, thank you so much for sharing this process with us, Lance & Patrick.
I understand, you enjoy metal working and there will be plenty more metal working. This video was from my woodworking channel which I'm in the process of merging with this channel. A lot of my projects are a mix of wood and metal. The screw storage shelves and cheap shop storage are good examples and so is the Wood lathe Made like a Metal lathe. More to come on the metal working so stay with me :o) You are welcome. As for your veneer panels... I'm not sure they would darken evenly.
A spill resistant oil change pan, the kind with a cap on the pour spout would be ideal in making a permanent fuming chamber. You could run a tube from the outside to the pan to refill or empty the ammonia, and make a sealed enclosure with an exhaust port you could open to vent off the gas... if you wanted to do this often.
I't an amazing process. Old too, Stickley used the process on his furniture and it was used to darken the trim in arts and craft style homes between 1920 an 1950
@@dizzolve - I know it is something called tannin in the wood that makes the color change with ammonia. Many wood species have contain tannin but white oak has a lot more than any other wood. Red oak also turns dark although not as much but the red coloring with the brown tannin makes the wood have a green tint. Red oak smells like cow manure and white oak has a sweet smell.... so maybe you can smell the tannin.
Actually, fuming was used as early as late 1700's. In cooler environments you can suspend the metal can above a candle or heat source and accelerate the process but you'll have to replenish frequently. Your perfectly sealed container would be considered overkill by many but it sure worked good (best I've seen). I suspect the slow fuming process over several days (or weeks) is a deeper and more efficient process then a quick 24 hour fuming. Incidentally, I used to date a woman years ago that wore perfume so strong it would have the same effect on oak furniture when she walked into a room - you should've seen the furniture in her apartment. She could set off a smoke alarm.
Cool... I didn't know it was used that long ago. I fumed these parts a long time but part of the reason was that I was running low on Ammonia. I recently fumed more oak in less than half the time (2-days) with the same results but used twice as much ammonia. It wasn't quite as deep but still at least 1/8" deep. The reason I sealed is so well is that I brought it inside. Good that the lady you described was in past tense. Ha
How deep does the staining go ? If you were to sand or carve into it, will the original wood colour re appear ? Could you mask off areas that you do not want darkened ? Never heard of the process or seen it done before.
The fuming can not be masked off. In fact I left wood stacked on each other and the darkening effect was the same. The ammonia gets in no matter what. I cut one test piece in half and the darkening effect was about 1/4" deep. I'm not sure that's deep enough to carve but you certainly don't have to worry about sanding the wood.
Hi Winky - just a thought. ..if fuming works best at elevated temps, maybe you could use a seed starting mat. They are temp regulated to around 75 degrees. Thanks for sharing the process. Is that a clock case you are working on? Have a happy day!
I'm not certain what temperature is needed but I was worried about the ammonia vaporizing at 10 degrees. The seed mat might be a good way to keep the whole thing outside.
Well done video. It doesn't appear that fuming raises the grain at all. How deep does the fuming penetrate into the wood. The reason that I ask is, what if I need to sand the oak a little more after fuming will light spots show up?
The color is a full 1/4" deep if you fume it 5 or 6 days. Just recently I darkened a piece of white oak to mount some house numbers on. I did it for 3 days and it was a full 1/8" deep. You can sand the heck out of it, glue it... whatever you want. Heck you can even run it through your planer without a color change. The only thing I don't like is that the color is not very warm. An oil finish is great but the spar varnish I put on the house number board gave it a green cast. I still used it but on furniture I'll stick with oil.
I have heard of fuming but had not seen it in action. Thanks for expanding my knowledge. One question though. How deep does the coloring go? I suppose it is like case hardening where the longer you leave it in the deeper it goes.
VERY deep! I cut one of the test pieces and it was dark about 1/4" into the wood. I put an oil finish on these pieces but you certainly would not have to worry about sanding through varnish between coats.
Never heard of that, interesting. I sort of got hung up on the 30 degree and 28 degree part. At one time when I worked in the evil polluting chemical plant I ran some ammonia compressors. They leaked all the time and when you went in between the compressor cylinders to refill the oilers every sweaty part of your body would be on fire. It did not make me turn brown though.
One of my first jobs was working for a printing company whose bread and butter work was making blue line prints for architects. To develop the paper we used 300 pound tanks of anhydrous ammonia. Once one of the guys didn't get the valve on securely and it spewed gas like crazy. We were lucky that we got the valve closed quickly enough that the fumes didn't reach a toxic level. On a positive note, my West Texas sinuses stayed open as long as I worked there due to the ammonia vapors that permeated the facility.
@@robertoswalt319 - I probably should have worn a respirator but I was handling it outside in cold weather. Still dangerous but not as bad. I just retired from printing (offset magazine). My job was designing machine improvements. This is one reason I got back into metal working. I got tired of waiting for our shop to make parts. It wasn't uncommon for me to take a day away from work and make parts in my basement shop. I'm glad to be retired.... that place consumed me. So many problems to address. I made a lot of positive change but I was still only scratching the surface. It was the perfect job for me but I had enough.
Winky's Workshop I left offset printing in 2000 to go into IT work. My last press was a Heidelberg 28x40 8 color perfector. While I enjoyed the work most of the time, I figured my career path would probably involve my being a 70 year old shop foreman on second shift yelling at people for screwing a job up.
@@robertoswalt319 - I was in web offset. I ran an Harris M1000 with a 38-inch web for years but also worked on Heidelberg M3000's and s3000's (72" web). Sheet fed can be a real pain but thing are more under control. I worked in sheet fed years ago but very small. Heidelberg GTP 18 x 20 if I remember right. I enjoyed it for the most part.
Hey Winky, does it also change the color of the wood through out? In other words, If you cut that piece of scrap you did, would the color be consistent? Thanks
To some extent yes, all the way through. I'm sure it also depends on how long you fume the wood. After 6 days the test piece I cut the color was 1/4" deep.
Very permanent. The wood has to have tannin. White oak has more than other wood but all wood contains some. Red oak works okay but turns a green color. Maple doesn't have much.
It goes away by itself to some degree but what was left I just tossed out on the driveway. Ammonia evaporates very fast. Be aware of people and wind but within a few minutes it's undetectable. Better to wear a respirator when handling this stuff. I never smelled it the whole time but I was super careful.
@@WinkysWorkshop thank you! Im using an ammonia rated p100 & airtight goggles and have a project fuming right now til I realized I wasnt sure if special disposal was needed. I appreciate it!
@@jonathantowne8863 Unless you are tossing massive quantities I don't think there is a problem. Ammonia is in nature. Horse and cow manure release a bunch of it.
I toss it out on my paved driveway and it dissipates very fast. Ammonia is a naturally occurring substance in nature. It's only harmful in a concentrated form. You really should weird a respirator when handling the concentrated stuff.
Thanks for videoing the whole process. another channel did a whole bunch of examples varying the technique duration but he didn’t show himself doing the process and I’m not naïve so I don’t believe it unless I see it. there’s too many people that will say or claim anything on UA-cam to get clicks Cuz it’s money in their pocket. In addition to the advertising revenue he was plugging his book that wasn’t even about fuming. The other guy didn’t even mention the fact that almost every sample that he did was quartersawn oak and of course they were the only ones that looked any good. I don’t think there’s any point in fuming Oak unless it is quarter sawn. On at least one visible side. If it’s not quartersawn I’d be more tempted to use Shou Sugi Ban
Thanks... I need to try shorter times for fuming. The part I like about this process is that the color is very deep in the wood. You can fume and then sand as needed. As for the hazard of the ammonia... Yes, it's very bad stuff. Hopefully I stressed this enough. I feel fairly safe but it would be better if I had better protection. With that being said... lower strength ammonia does work well, it just takes longer. I think in a way it might be easier to control the color however. Most everything i have fumed so far is about 2 days.
A few different places but Amazon was the last place. Be careful with that stuff. It's deadly! Outside and upwind! They says to use a full face respirator.
No... just very dangerous to breath and the fumes will burn your skin and eyes. Be careful. It's deadly! Outside and upwind! They says to use a full face respirator.
This was a great video except you didn’t show the end product with a finish on it without a finish on it. That video doesn’t really show much I looked at your finished product but you didn’t show any close-ups of the wood so that didn’t help. I’ve been collecting antiques for at least 55 years so you can imagine I’ve seen everything and I saw a fumed oak China cabinet from the 1890s and a fumed oak vestibule in an 1890s San Francisco Victorian and I would love to be able to replicate the look of that which was basically black with with what looked like a very light colored antiquing to set off the grain as well but I don’t really know. it may have all been done chemically. I’m sure in my lifetime I have been to many hundreds of auctions of antiques and mini hundreds of antique stores and these two examples both found in the San Francisco Bay area are the only examples I’ve ever come across of the fumed oak technique that I want to duplicate. I tried buying that oak China cabinet even though I already had a much nicer one worth about $10,000 but I wanted that one just because of the finish that I hoped to replicate but it sold for over $3500 and I couldn’t justify spending that just for an example of the finish
Good morning Winky. Great topic ---- I spent about a dozen years as a finish carpenter, I never did any fuming my self. In some of the beautiful old Homes I worked in you could spot the fumed furniture nothing else can replicate the rich look it produces. You are correct on white oak as I know red oak does not fumigate well. Thanks Andy
Yeah... red oak turns a green color. I like the color of fumed oak but the best part is that it is deep in the wood.
@@WinkysWorkshop Hi Winky, today's video index made me want to revisit this video. The camera just doesn't pick up the full beauty. This finish on quarter sawn oak is amazing -- I don't even know how to explain it. A few things that are really interesting is the depth of the finish and how well it holds up. I've seen furniture that was almost a hundred years old and still looks great. If something gets nicked you can blend it in with sandpaper or scraping and it will still look fine.
@@andyZ3500s - Hello Andy. I agree, fuming oak is totally amazing and at least on a small scale very easy to do. I have maybe 80 bf of quarter and rift sawn white oak and I'm getting very selective about how I use it. I'd love to find another log but I'm out of space. I just put about 250 bf of Tulip Poplar in the shed and it's full. Poplar is amazing but it's more of a utility lumber.
Will have to try this out for myself, thank's for taking the time to share this one with us.
Play Safe From Elliot Lake Ontario Canada.
I hope it works well. 3 days maybe enough in a good sealed chamber.
Very nice. Like you said, the ammonia reacts to tannin in the oak. You can stain woods with low or no tannin by staining with a water stain made of black tea prior to fuming. Regular black tea is loaded with it. I tried it on a maple gun stock and it gave it a look that only comes from 150 years of exposure to the world. After fuming the tea stained maple looked fuzzy green, but after oil finish it came out nice and brown. One word of caution, do your fuming in a controlled area. I did it in my little reloading shed and the fumes attacked the brass cups of some primers I had nearby. They became embrittled and ruined the bolt of a rifle I shot them in. Sent the primers to Federal and they did a lab analysis and found "stress/corrosion" cracking due to exposue to.....Ammonia!
Thanks for the info on the Ammonia I've heard of people using tea but never tried it. I had no idea about brass... although I never smelled the ammonia in the tub I did it in. It was sealed very well.
High Winky.I have never heard of fuming since I fumed my school project an English Oak side table 68 years ago back in the Uk,I was a little disappointed with the colour not as dark as I would have wished,how ever oiling did improve matters,I think your attention to the sealing every thing down is the answer and has given you such a great result.all the best from Australia.
You are probably correct about sealing. Also, after 3 days it was probably dark enough. I wanted to see how much darker it would get so I replenished the ammonia and fumed for another 3 days. After applying the oil finish it was too dark in my opinion.
You learn something every day. Thanks for the demo. BTW- respirators are cheaper to buy than new lungs.
Good point.
Gday mate, I have never seen this before and to be honest I never know about, beautiful results though, once you put a little oil on the grain will look more nicer again, thanks for sharing mate, Matty 🇦🇺
You're right. Oil brings the wood to life! Here's the finished product. It ended up in your part of the workd! ua-cam.com/video/Aw72um6S7P4/v-deo.html
That makes such a beautiful color! Nice.
I think so too! I think so too. Aside from dealing with near lethal ammonia its easy too! If you do this be very careful.
Really nice outcome on the wood. I work with ammonia nitrate, its very strong and hard to breathe in. But it wont hurt you. You could have put that ammonia in a heated water bowl to make it chooch better.
The 28% percent liquid ammonia is very dangerous. I was taking a chance not using a respirator.
I read that a century or so ago it was common to do bank and office interiors with intricately carved panels and moldings of white oak then to suspend metal pans of amonia over candles or some other small heat source, close up the room and let it fume for a few days; the target color was a kind of honey brown when finished with linseed oil. On the darker side after years of exposure to ammonia from animal urine and manure the old oak planks and beams in stables were turned nearly black. And, as noted by others, fumed oak grain stains in almost the opposite way that modern stains color the grain [almost a photo negative effect in some cases].
I read the same... I heard they filled the building with ammonia gas.
That is pretty impressive. On the video, the oak almost looks like black walnut in color.
True, in real life it also looks like walnut too, especially with an oil finish! Aside from having to work with Ammonia it's a very cool process!
Great method! Thank you for sharing! I want to see the finished Wimshurst machine!!!
Thanks... You got it. I sold the machine to a guy in Australia (I live in Kentucky). Postage was crazy high. He made this video: ua-cam.com/video/Aw72um6S7P4/v-deo.html
Hi wood is not our friend, to be here is to share I am willing to try to see that wood can be our friend, as like with metals so here we are and here we will learn from you. White oak hey I know about white oak plywood veneer panels so what is this ammonia treatment. My panels are bleached white like, you are making your material brown wow 2 weeks and I am learning something neat (never new about being able to do this always thought it was just staining) what some dark rich wood that turned out to be.
Really a very nice look and some really nice work from you, thank you so much for sharing this process with us, Lance & Patrick.
I understand, you enjoy metal working and there will be plenty more metal working. This video was from my woodworking channel which I'm in the process of merging with this channel. A lot of my projects are a mix of wood and metal. The screw storage shelves and cheap shop storage are good examples and so is the Wood lathe Made like a Metal lathe. More to come on the metal working so stay with me :o) You are welcome. As for your veneer panels... I'm not sure they would darken evenly.
I've been planning some file handles, I've never heard of this, might just give it a try. Pretty cool!
If they are white oak it will work well.
A spill resistant oil change pan, the kind with a cap on the pour spout would be ideal in making a permanent fuming chamber. You could run a tube from the outside to the pan to refill or empty the ammonia, and make a sealed enclosure with an exhaust port you could open to vent off the gas... if you wanted to do this often.
That would be a good idea although I've only done it 3 times in the last few years. Thanks.
Wow Mark great new process that I never knew about.
Why 8s white oak the best in Australia we also have Tasmanian oak which seem softer than red oak
White oak has high amounts of Tannin that reacts to the ammonia. Maybe the Tasmanian oak will do the same!
wow that's very interesting. Looks like a walnut shade
I't an amazing process. Old too, Stickley used the process on his furniture and it was used to darken the trim in arts and craft style homes between 1920 an 1950
It only works well with white oak however.
I wonder if that smell of oak has anything to do with the chemistry going on there @@WinkysWorkshop
@@dizzolve - I know it is something called tannin in the wood that makes the color change with ammonia. Many wood species have contain tannin but white oak has a lot more than any other wood. Red oak also turns dark although not as much but the red coloring with the brown tannin makes the wood have a green tint. Red oak smells like cow manure and white oak has a sweet smell.... so maybe you can smell the tannin.
Actually, fuming was used as early as late 1700's.
In cooler environments you can suspend the metal can above a candle or heat source and accelerate the process but you'll have to replenish frequently. Your perfectly sealed container would be considered overkill by many but it sure worked good (best I've seen). I suspect the slow fuming process over several days (or weeks) is a deeper and more efficient process then a quick 24 hour fuming.
Incidentally, I used to date a woman years ago that wore perfume so strong it would have the same effect on oak furniture when she walked into a room - you should've seen the furniture in her apartment. She could set off a smoke alarm.
Cool... I didn't know it was used that long ago. I fumed these parts a long time but part of the reason was that I was running low on Ammonia. I recently fumed more oak in less than half the time (2-days) with the same results but used twice as much ammonia. It wasn't quite as deep but still at least 1/8" deep. The reason I sealed is so well is that I brought it inside.
Good that the lady you described was in past tense. Ha
How deep does the staining go ? If you were to sand or carve into it, will the original wood colour re appear ? Could you mask off areas that you do not want darkened ? Never heard of the process or seen it done before.
The fuming can not be masked off. In fact I left wood stacked on each other and the darkening effect was the same. The ammonia gets in no matter what. I cut one test piece in half and the darkening effect was about 1/4" deep. I'm not sure that's deep enough to carve but you certainly don't have to worry about sanding the wood.
Hi Winky - just a thought. ..if fuming works best at elevated temps, maybe you could use a seed starting mat. They are temp regulated to around 75 degrees. Thanks for sharing the process. Is that a clock case you are working on? Have a happy day!
I'm not certain what temperature is needed but I was worried about the ammonia vaporizing at 10 degrees. The seed mat might be a good way to keep the whole thing outside.
Well done video. It doesn't appear that fuming raises the grain at all. How deep does the fuming penetrate into the wood. The reason that I ask is, what if I need to sand the oak a little more after fuming will light spots show up?
The color is a full 1/4" deep if you fume it 5 or 6 days. Just recently I darkened a piece of white oak to mount some house numbers on. I did it for 3 days and it was a full 1/8" deep. You can sand the heck out of it, glue it... whatever you want. Heck you can even run it through your planer without a color change. The only thing I don't like is that the color is not very warm. An oil finish is great but the spar varnish I put on the house number board gave it a green cast. I still used it but on furniture I'll stick with oil.
No raised grain at all.
Nice! I was wondering how far into the wood the color goes ? Can you sand the surface after fuming ?
It goes a full 1/4 deep, at least when fumed for 5 or 6 days. You can sand all you want and even plane the wood and never see a change. It's great!
I have heard of fuming but had not seen it in action. Thanks for expanding my knowledge. One question though. How deep does the coloring go? I suppose it is like case hardening where the longer you leave it in the deeper it goes.
VERY deep! I cut one of the test pieces and it was dark about 1/4" into the wood. I put an oil finish on these pieces but you certainly would not have to worry about sanding through varnish between coats.
Perfect, that addresses my concern. My next wood project may be with white oak and fuming it.
Thanks again for the great wood and metal videos.
Never heard of that, interesting. I sort of got hung up on the 30 degree and 28 degree part. At one time when I worked in the evil polluting chemical plant I ran some ammonia compressors. They leaked all the time and when you went in between the compressor cylinders to refill the oilers every sweaty part of your body would be on fire. It did not make me turn brown though.
No? It didn't turn you brown? Funny!
One of my first jobs was working for a printing company whose bread and butter work was making blue line prints for architects. To develop the paper we used 300 pound tanks of anhydrous ammonia. Once one of the guys didn't get the valve on securely and it spewed gas like crazy. We were lucky that we got the valve closed quickly enough that the fumes didn't reach a toxic level.
On a positive note, my West Texas sinuses stayed open as long as I worked there due to the ammonia vapors that permeated the facility.
@@robertoswalt319 - I probably should have worn a respirator but I was handling it outside in cold weather. Still dangerous but not as bad. I just retired from printing (offset magazine). My job was designing machine improvements. This is one reason I got back into metal working. I got tired of waiting for our shop to make parts. It wasn't uncommon for me to take a day away from work and make parts in my basement shop. I'm glad to be retired.... that place consumed me. So many problems to address. I made a lot of positive change but I was still only scratching the surface. It was the perfect job for me but I had enough.
Winky's Workshop I left offset printing in 2000 to go into IT work. My last press was a Heidelberg 28x40 8 color perfector. While I enjoyed the work most of the time, I figured my career path would probably involve my being a 70 year old shop foreman on second shift yelling at people for screwing a job up.
@@robertoswalt319 - I was in web offset. I ran an Harris M1000 with a 38-inch web for years but also worked on Heidelberg M3000's and s3000's (72" web). Sheet fed can be a real pain but thing are more under control. I worked in sheet fed years ago but very small. Heidelberg GTP 18 x 20 if I remember right. I enjoyed it for the most part.
Hey Winky, does it also change the color of the wood through out? In other words, If you cut that piece of scrap you did, would the color be consistent? Thanks
To some extent yes, all the way through. I'm sure it also depends on how long you fume the wood. After 6 days the test piece I cut the color was 1/4" deep.
Thanks Winky. Wonder how maple would react? Is the brown color permanent or does it tend to fade with time?
Very permanent. The wood has to have tannin. White oak has more than other wood but all wood contains some. Red oak works okay but turns a green color. Maple doesn't have much.
Does the wood smell strongly after the fuming? If so, does it go away/how long does that take, or is there a way to speed up the deodorizing?
Yes it smells but it's gone in about an hour or two.
How do you dispose of that strong of a corrosive agent when you are done with it? Do you dilute and neutralize it or what would you recommend?
It goes away by itself to some degree but what was left I just tossed out on the driveway. Ammonia evaporates very fast. Be aware of people and wind but within a few minutes it's undetectable. Better to wear a respirator when handling this stuff. I never smelled it the whole time but I was super careful.
@@WinkysWorkshop thank you! Im using an ammonia rated p100 & airtight goggles and have a project fuming right now til I realized I wasnt sure if special disposal was needed. I appreciate it!
@@jonathantowne8863 Unless you are tossing massive quantities I don't think there is a problem. Ammonia is in nature. Horse and cow manure release a bunch of it.
One question, what do you do with the ammonia once you finished with it?
I toss it out on my paved driveway and it dissipates very fast. Ammonia is a naturally occurring substance in nature. It's only harmful in a concentrated form. You really should weird a respirator when handling the concentrated stuff.
Thanks for videoing the whole process. another channel did a whole bunch of examples varying the technique duration but he didn’t show himself doing the process and I’m not naïve so I don’t believe it unless I see it. there’s too many people that will say or claim anything on UA-cam to get clicks Cuz it’s money in their pocket. In addition to the advertising revenue he was plugging his book that wasn’t even about fuming. The other guy didn’t even mention the fact that almost every sample that he did was quartersawn oak and of course they were the only ones that looked any good. I don’t think there’s any point in fuming Oak unless it is quarter sawn. On at least one visible side. If it’s not quartersawn I’d be more tempted to use Shou Sugi Ban
Thanks... I need to try shorter times for fuming. The part I like about this process is that the color is very deep in the wood. You can fume and then sand as needed. As for the hazard of the ammonia... Yes, it's very bad stuff. Hopefully I stressed this enough. I feel fairly safe but it would be better if I had better protection. With that being said... lower strength ammonia does work well, it just takes longer. I think in a way it might be easier to control the color however. Most everything i have fumed so far is about 2 days.
Where did you get your ammonia?
A few different places but Amazon was the last place. Be careful with that stuff. It's deadly! Outside and upwind! They says to use a full face respirator.
👏❤️
thanks
Is ammonia gas flammable?
No... just very dangerous to breath and the fumes will burn your skin and eyes. Be careful. It's deadly! Outside and upwind! They says to use a full face respirator.
Oak to walnut
Yes, it is about the same color as walnut.
This was a great video except you didn’t show the end product with a finish on it without a finish on it. That video doesn’t really show much I looked at your finished product but you didn’t show any close-ups of the wood so that didn’t help. I’ve been collecting antiques for at least 55 years so you can imagine I’ve seen everything and I saw a fumed oak China cabinet from the 1890s and a fumed oak vestibule in an 1890s San Francisco Victorian and I would love to be able to replicate the look of that which was basically black with with what looked like a very light colored antiquing to set off the grain as well but I don’t really know. it may have all been done chemically. I’m sure in my lifetime I have been to many hundreds of auctions of antiques and mini hundreds of antique stores and these two examples both found in the San Francisco Bay area are the only examples I’ve ever come across of the fumed oak technique that I want to duplicate. I tried buying that oak China cabinet even though I already had a much nicer one worth about $10,000 but I wanted that one just because of the finish that I hoped to replicate but it sold for over $3500 and I couldn’t justify spending that just for an example of the finish
Here a video of what I made... maybe not the same machine. ua-cam.com/video/aLVlV0N7Y1Y/v-deo.html
Email me: Winysworkshop@GMX.com. Put OAK as the subject.