Anyone Fume Oak?

Re: Anyone Fume Oak?

JL

I've fumed oak with blueprint ammonia, which is somewhat stronger than household ammonia.

I would worry about exposure to sunlight - so perhaps you might consider a finish w/ some sort of UV blocker in it. The one piece that I "stained" in this fashion was finished w/ a floor polyurethane that supposedly had a UV blocker incorporated into the finish - it has held up fairly well.

I would advise using a respirator with ammonia cartridges, preferably a full face respirator - YMMV.

Re: Anyone Fume Oak?

Jim Hoeller

My wife saw an ad for a Stickley "fireside bench" in a local paper that was available from a nearby furniture store. I visited the store, made some measurements and built mine out of quarter sawn white oak. I created a fuming tent out of PVC pipe and PE film (about 4 mil). As with JL, I used blueprint ammonia and had great results overnight. I finished the item with oil based poly and it has held up well. It has had only limited exposure to sunlight.

Re: Anyone Fume Oak?

Michael van pelt

I have tried several times with mix and disappointing results. I believe the only way to make fuming work is to build the piece of furniture from all the same tree. Fuming gave me light and dark pieces and no control. matching two pieces seems impossible.

Tannin concentration

JL

The darkening is a function of the tannin concentration as well as the concentration of gaseous ammonia. I am not surprised that using wood from different sources/trees would give you different results. I ended up gassing mine overnight in my little "tent". All my lumber had been purchased at one time and may have come from one tree.

Re: Anyone Fume Oak?

Don Stephan

This topic received a lot of discussion in a thread titled "Darkening oak questions" that began on 9/20.

Duhh! I started that thread also.

Barry Irby

I reread it and relearned a lot of stuff. I am beginning to worry about my short term memory.