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Fuming test

Phil

Phil

Old Oak
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Fuming test



Some wood pieces fumed with ammonia.



Day 1 – piece of American Ash resting on 2 bits of Pine, a piece of Red Oak was added on day 2

Day 1.jpg

Day 3 – Take a very deep breath before opening the box! Not much action

Day 3.jpg

Day 5 – slight colour in the Ash and the Oak really taking in the ammonia

Day 5.jpg

Day 8 – only slight changes. The ammonia smell is not so strong when opening the box

Day 8.jpg

Day 12 – end of experiment, now to do comparisons

Day 12.jpg

American Ash – slight difference to the plank where it was cut off.

Ash.jpg

Red Oak – definitely a nice light shade of brown. Beech is also good for fuming, similar to the Oak, forgot to add a piece.

Oak.jpg

Pine – the 2 outer pieces are fumed and the change is similar to the Ash. Did not expect to see this and would make a good alternative to a light stain.

Pine.jpg

The last example is an Ash offcut that was stored behind some ply. Not exposed to sun at all, but near the garage entrance. This has been standing there since last year June.

Ash_Exposure.jpg

The object of the exercise was to see what the timber would do that I want to use to make some trivets without resorting to stains.
 
Phil, that beaker/glass is not providing very much surface area to allow fumes to rise. Great if you are trying to exert some control, but agonisingly slow if other 'surfers' are working persons, looking to bang out a piece sharpish.
If the reader is the latter, I'd suggest baking trays, or better still, shallow plaskit boxes - think grow-bag trays.
 
SamQ aka Ah! Q! said:
Phil, that beaker/glass is not providing very much surface area to allow fumes to rise. Great if you are trying to exert some control, but agonisingly slow if other 'surfers' are working persons, looking to bang out a piece sharpish.
If the reader is the latter, I'd suggest baking trays, or better still, shallow plaskit boxes - think grow-bag trays.
Click to expand...

Sam you are correct. When I fumed Beech years ago for candle holders I used a shallow tray with plastic stands in it and the wood on top.
Also easy to top up the ammonia. I would also stand the fuming box in the sun to see if there is a better reaction.

Cabinetman said:
Agree with Sam, but I must admit the last time I even saw it done was at School 57 years ago lol. Maybe a small fan?
The colour European Oak goes is almost chocolate brown.
Haven’t come across this community before but thought you might be interested.
Ian
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link Ian.
I am sure 'someone' on the forum also fumed and built a fuming tent.
 
Phil said:
I am sure 'someone' on the forum also fumed and built a fuming tent.
Click to expand...
When I lived in the US in Texas I shared a workshop with another furniture maker. He needed to fume some fairly large American white oak pieces. Rather than go to the trouble of building a tent in the workshop in which to put the furniture whilst it fumed he went down the road and hired a UHaul trailer. Shoved the furniture in, add saucers of strong ammonia, closed the doors and waited. Twenty four hours later it had worked a treat and he towed the trailer back to the UHaul rental place. Slainte.
 
I should have said in my first post that you can buy tannin from, for example, wine making suppliers to apply to the surface of wood species that don't react to ammonia. Applying tannin to ash would cause it to react to ammonia which Phil was experimenting with, but you really need strong ammonia. Here in the UK we look for what's known as .880 ammonia. In South Africa he'd maybe need to look for the strong ammonia used in some printing processes, maybe dyeline printing, not sure of that though. Slainte.
 
yes you'll need the industrial stuff, beware though, you will need the right mask and goggles! it is really nasty, also do it outside! I've used it on sapele, pear, white and brown oak and it made a big difference to colour, the most dramatic change was white oak.
 
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