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How to make your own
Harewood with the use an easily available gardening product
and cold tea! |
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Harewood, as you're
all most likely aware, is usually treated sycamore veneer that has acquired
a grey to black appearance. It can sometimes turn a shade of blue or even
silver according to how it is treated with the "chemicals" Alf is about to
describe.
These chemicals in question are nothing
more noxious than iron sulphate crystals (or powder) and cold tea! I asked
Alf (as did every other wag in the group!) what type of tea should we use -
perhaps Darjeeling or Earl Grey or even Chinese Gunpowder! but Alf was wise
to these witticisms and said that any type of tea would suffice as long as
it was made sufficiently strong.
Iron sulphate is easily obtainable from garden centres as
powder or crystals in fairly large boxes. It is normally a reasonably cheap
product, but unlike tea, it is not something that you drink! Your
Chrysanthemums and Roses like a drop of it around their roots however (it
colours their petals I believe) - but, anyway, gardening advice is not our
forte, so let's move onto something we do know about and that is Harewood
veneers: |
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Okay Alf, the floor is yours:
"When we talk about Harewood veneers we are mostly referring to Sycamore
that has been stained, but unsurprisingly other veneers can also be treated.
These are such veneers as Masur Birch, Lacewood and Ash, to name but a few.
Most of the veneers used for this treatment are the light coloured veneers -
although Oak takes this treatment surprisingly well, in fact it goes almost
black when treated with the iron sulphate solution. A good example of this
is when you see a piece of Oak used in say a building construction or a
piece of furniture, and it has an iron nail driven through it at some time
in it's life, you will see a virtually jet black ring around the nail in the
Oak. This is caused by the reaction of the iron to the Oak, it's a natural
process that we make use of without having to resort to the auspices of the
petro-chemically dyed veneers that are so obviously artificially coloured"
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Alf demonstrates the Harewood treatment
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For the iron
sulphate method of colouring veneers I would recommend the following
proportions for making a sufficient quantity of solution for several large
pieces of veneer. The iron sulphate we are going to be working with is
easily available at most garden centres.
The
proportions are: 3 x tea spoonfuls of iron sulphate powder or crystals mixed
or dissolved into about 2 x pints (that's about one and a quarter litres
approximately) of water - it dissolves very quickly by the way.
Pour the solution into a tray (an aluminium foil food tray
as seen in the accompanying photos is ideal) and then place your veneer into
the liquid and leave it for about twenty minutes. After the allotted time
remove the veneer and rinse it under cold water and then place it between
some sheets of paper kitchen towels, place under a weight and leave it
overnight. Do not use any form of news print as the ink used for the print
could be transferred onto the veneer - and if this happens it is virtually
impossible to remove - so take care. |
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To
obtain a darker shade for your iron sulphate solution soaked veneers, try
the tea method!
Before you place your veneer in the iron sulphate solution, do
the following:
Make some tea, say 3 or 4 tea
bags (or the equivalent in loose leaf tea) for a pot full of tea, and
allow it to brew for at least 10 minutes.
Pour it into one of the aluminium foil food trays and
immerse your veneer into the tea solution and leave it for about 20
minutes. Rinse the veneer under cold water and then place your
veneer in the iron sulphate solution and follow the instructions as
already described previously. |
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Note that Oak if placed in a
solution of iron sulphate will turn deep blue or nearly black.
To get a cloud effect on Sycamore, rub three coats of
cellulose sanding sealer onto the veneer, leaving patches untreated (the
sealer will be the cloud and the untreated sections will be the clear sky
parts).
You can see examples of the various treatments in the
following demonstration pieces on this page and the next page |
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To see several
examples of Sycamore, Masur Birch, Lacewood, Ash and Oak veneers after
being soaked in the iron sulphate and tea solutions, click the following
link button:
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