Quote:
Originally Posted by Jakey
Yes, but black walnut isn't common here. Just a regular walnut or either walnut's root. That's most you can get from it. (from woodes, that are useful for knife handles)
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You can blacken lighter colored walnut, oak, maple, and many other woods containing tannin in their chemical makeup. Just take a ball of steel wool and dissolve in distilled white vinegar. The combination of the dissolved iron and vinegar will react with the residual tannins in the wood and turn it charcoal gray to black depending on amount and species of wood. A lot of the old black handled knives and swords of european origin were just common oak treated this way.
This will also turn veggie tanned leather a nice dark gray to black for the same reason.
If you forge and use white vinegar to loosen/soften scale or etch your blades, it will also serve the same purpose - most of us oldtimers call it "vinergaroon".