alcohol soak question

2/28/05, 11:33 PM #1

jared
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alcohol soak question

jared

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Hello: I have been soaking my roughed out bowls in alcohol with good results. I have had two vats of alcohol, one that has stayed fairly clear that I use for my lighter colored woods, ash and maple and another one that I have used only on walnut. It is now the color of very black, black coffee. I have some walnut roughouts with a lot of very nice, white sapwood that I would like to keep white, I like the contrast and look. The first one I did and finish turned had some dark stains in areas of the sapwood. Did this come from the discolored alcohol? I have done some walnut with sapwood in the past and it seems like the nice bright white color eventually turns gold, or darker. In the original post on the subject, it was stated that he had not experienced staining of light woods with discolored alcohol.. Has anyone else had any experience or observations on this subject? I am all ears. Thanks in advance Jared

Re: alcohol soak question

3/1/05, 12:14 AM #2

Jim King
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Re: alcohol soak question

Jim King

>I can tell you that we soak our blanks in a mixture of sugar cane liquer , anti fungas chemical and anti insect chemical and the solution gets coffee colored and worse . When we clean up the blanks on a jointer or with an electric hand planer the dark colored sap wood is white again with one pass. The dark solution does not penetrate more than an 1/16 of an inch. These are all tropical woods but I dought if that is a factor.

Re: alcohol soak question

3/1/05, 1:11 AM #3

JL
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Registered: 7/4/04

Re: alcohol soak question

JL

>You are extracting "dyes" and colorants with the alcohol. They will act as a stain. I have extracted some wood chips (walnut, logwood) and other things (lichen) for my wife to use as natural dyes. I used alcohol in some cases. On wood, it will probably penetrate the same as a stain. If you are shaving off 1/16" or so, you will probably take the vast majority of the "dyed" material off.

Re: alcohol soak question

3/1/05, 1:50 AM #4

Dave Smith, Longview, WA
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I have not experienced any problems.

Dave Smith, Longview, WA

>Hi Jared,

I only have one vat of alcohol so every thing is soaked in it. My alcohol is dark brown right now. I recently soaked some big leaf maple and white oak in it with no color staining. The wood surface will darken do to oxidation but it turns off when truing the bowl. The dark color in black wall nut can bleed into the sap wood while the log is waiting for processing. The sap wood can also be effected by blue stain fungus. It usually leaves a gray/blank coloration in the wood.

Glad to hear that the process is working for you. Please let me know how the walnut comes out.

Dave Smith

Time for supper in Longview, WA.

Re: alcohol soak question

3/1/05, 2:03 AM #5

Terry Quiram
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Registered: 1/3/04

Re: I have not experienced any problems.

Terry Quiram

>I have a bucket of very red (from Cedar) alcohol that doesn't change the color of Maple.

Terry

Re: alcohol soak question

3/1/05, 5:17 AM #6

Jim Ketron
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Re: I have not experienced any problems.

Jim Ketron

>I did a test after I have soaked a few walnut blanks in my batch. I droped a Pen blank size of silver Maple that Is very light in color, left it in for 48 hrs pulled it out and still looks the same as it did when I put it in.

Jim

Re: alcohol soak question

3/1/05, 3:10 PM #7

jared
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Re: I have not experienced any problems.

jared

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Hello dave: I am doing a little experiment today. I put my walnut rough out in some fresh alcohol today, and will not soak it as long. In a few weeks when I finish turn it I will let you know how the color turns out. I have been looking at the piece I just did and have not been able to come up with any real pattern to the dark coloring on the sapwood. Jared

alcohol soak question

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