Fuming didn’t work so well, so I wasn’t holding out much hope for ebonizing my oak as it’s a few more steps than fuming.
To recap, fuming oak is pretty simple. Just put the oak in a closed(ish) box with a small dish of ammonia. Stronger solutions work faster, but I got results with ammonia from [...]
Considering fuming as a furniture finish? Using red oak? Try something else. My test piece did exactly what others are reporting – red oak (American, at least) turns greenish when fumed with ammonia:
Both the fumed piece, left, and the control piece have one coat of tung oil. Disappointing, too, as the fuming went perfectly. Ammonia [...]