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My wife inherited an old cedar chest from her favorite aunt. It is a beautiful piece of furniture that is estimated to be over 60 years old, and all hand crafted. The only problem with the cedar chest is that it no longer has that wonderful aromatic smell. I looked high and low for products that would some how rejuvenate the wood and bring it back to it’ former aroma. I even tried a bit of cedar extra oil on a small part, but not only did it not work, the small amount of good it did only lasted a few days.
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We are in an age when changing or enhancing the color of wood simply means using one of the fine stains or dyes are readily available. It wasn't all that long ago that the to change or enhance the color of wood was something called Fuming. It's the same thing that mother nature uses, oxidization.
Mother nature does it naturally with oxygen, but we don't have decades to wait, so we can speed up the process with ammonia. The benefits of fuming wood is that you always get a consistent color, no need to worry about dye lots or color names on the can, and the coloring can penetrate the wood up to an eighth of an inch deep for a rich permanent coloration (not longer fuming is required for deeper wood penetration). The disadvantage is that different hues and tones are difficult to control because of differing wood types and length of fuming time and even colors withing the same woods, but we can see these with stains and dyes too.
To fume wood you only need four things, ammonia (more on this later), a plastic or glass (NOT metal) container (with a lid) for the ammonia to aerate from, and some sort of a sealed plastic tent or container in which to fume the wood.
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You have just spent weeks, maybe months creating a beautiful woodworking piece, now its time finish it. If you are anything like me, you HATE finishing, which is not necessarily a problem but if you rush through the finishing you can destroy all the hard work you have already invested into your project. The very first thing you need to decide before you begin any finishing is ...... what do you want the project to look like, and what is the purpose of the project. Is it a dining room table, plant stand, a pen or guitar. Once you know the questions to ask, determining how, and what you use in the finishing process will be much easier. Does it need to be water proof, do you want a glossy, satin or matte finish, what about the color, natural or do you want to color the wood? All good questions.