I've read a lot about using India ink for ebonizing wood, such as red oak,
but also found Sumi ink at my local art store. It is very black, and
quite a bit cheaper than India ink. From what I find on the internet,
Sumi ink is made from vegatable oil soot, and is used for caligraphy and
drafting. Was wondering if anyone else has used this for ebonizing? I
plan to apply polyurethane for the finish coat. Think it will work?

I use Black Leather dye -usally 2 or 3 applications followed by 2 or 3 coats
of black paste shoe polish this is one way to get a true black that doesn't
completly hide the wood grain

nuff' said
wood addict
"Chuck" wrote in message
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I've read a lot about using India ink for ebonizing wood, such as red oak,
but also found Sumi ink at my local art store. It is very black, and
quite a bit cheaper than India ink. From what I find on the internet,
Sumi ink is made from vegatable oil soot, and is used for caligraphy and
drafting. Was wondering if anyone else has used this for ebonizing? I
plan to apply polyurethane for the finish coat. Think it will work?

On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 02:48:10 GMT, Chuck wrote:

I've read a lot about using India ink for ebonizing wood, such as red oak,
but also found Sumi ink at my local art store.

Sumi ink is a carbon black pigment (same as almost any water-based
pigment stain) in a binder. Traditional binders are vegetable gums,
but modern stuff can be anything - especially for the liquid inks,
rather than the ink sticks. The advantage of these Eastern
calligraphy or art inks is that they have very fine pigment sizes, so
they can be diluted to give consistent pale greys. Indian ink, because
of the binder, is much harder to dilute successfully and tends to be
limited to darker greys.