black Sumi (japanese calligraphy) ink for ebonizing?

[Bob Hammond]

HI, I'd like to blacken some maple. I know that india ink has been used in the past to ebonize wood, and so I rummaged in my daugher-artist's boxes that she left in my care after art school (they'll be here forever). I found a bottle of Yasutomo Waterproof Liquid Sumi Ink, and painted some on a scrap. It comes out quite nicely black. After looking around a bit on the web, I see on the Dick Blick site that it's made from vegetable soot, and that it contains shellac which is probably the vehicle for the soot. Hmm. this sounds like it could be useful.

Does anybody have experience with material and technique?

[Jason Rodgers]

Sounds like lamp black, which turns out to be yasutomo, which is the pigment used in India ink. http://www.naturalpigments.com/lamp-black.html

[Michael Lewis]

Bob, are you looking to have an opaque black, or are you looking to get some figure of the wood to show?

Some of the Martin guitars made in the 1800s had black necks. This was shellac mixed with lamp black, and is an opaque black.

In some of my forays in coloring light colored wood (maple and spruce) I have found that the wood brings some color to the equation, and various black dyes have a tendency to go green or red or yellow and may require some color correction. This only matters if you are wanting the figure of the wood to show because the dye doesn't penetrate so well everywhere. End grain is open and sucks color like a sponge and side grain needs to be slightly roughened (220 grit) to take color well, and still takes it less well than the end grain.

[Bob Hammond]

Michael, I'm looking for an opaque or nearly so black. A single coat of the ink on birch produced the desired result, but I'm wondering if the ink was a bit thick from evaporation of the vehicle. I'll swing by the art store and buy another bottle, paint a coat on, and then go over it with 220/320 and give it a coat or three of Sealcoat. After that, I'm open to suggestions, but I think it's going to work.

[Bob Orr]

I read in a UK furniture making mag last month about using squid ink for ebonising. Produced a very natural deep black. Availabale online or from Italian food suppliers as it is used for cooking with pasta. May smell a bit but apparantly it dissappears after a day or so! Have not tried this myself yet but it was a respected fine furniture maker. Marc Fish who wrote the article. Cheers, Bob

[Bob Hammond]

I think that this may work. . Here's one coat of ink on a piece of maple that was cut to show all grain orientations, sanded with 220 and then given a swipe of Sealcoat shellac. It didn't bleed everywhere.

[Michael Lewis]

Looks black!