Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Lester
It's a little strange that it's coming from China but probably no more than if you bought it from a supplier in the US. It's a species that grows in Africa and the harvest is regulated but I don't believe that it's on the CITES list yet.
Doug
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Just ordered it, can't wait untill it comes. Will see, what will come in the mail.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crex
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".
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I tried to blacken the walnut with alcohol dye used for leather dying.
For etching damascus I use strange combination of HCl and H2SO4. Don't ask about it, a friend made it for me and it works just fine.
May also try with the wood!