The process of ebonizing wood is actually a fairly simple chemical reaction.  Not to tempt the wrath of my high school chemistry teacher (thank you for putting up with me, Mr. Oyer) but it works something like this.  The vinegar breaks down the steel wool into something resembling a smelly rust.  Wood has some kind of compound in it called tannin, and oak has more tannin than most other types of wood.  When the tannin is exposed to the rust, it causes the wood to turn jet black.

I took a piece of oak, stood it up in the vacuum chamber, then added the fluid until about a third of the wood was submerged.  Then I turned on the vacuum, hoping the pressure would draw the ebonizing fluid up, through the grain of the wood, resulting in a vase that was black at the top with lines of black “flowing” down toward the bottom.  What a great plan!  After about a week, you could see the blackness had come all the way through the wood, so I figured it must be as done as it needed to be.  When I started turning it, ALL of the darkness turned away and it looked like a simple, oak vase.  Bummer!  I hollowed out the vase about halfway down (to make it thinner) and stuck it back in the juice for three days, then left it under pressure for another three days.  It’s in the kiln drying now, so I should have a final product pretty soon.

After a couple days of drying, I couldn’t wait anymore and did the final turning.  WOW!  I really like the way the black came through what would normally have been a plain, blonde looking piece of oak.