Re: Wood stains

[Geo Kloppel <GeoK@aol.com>]

Thanks much to Joshua Proschan for replying to my question about
iron-staining .  He went on to say:

>There are several exhaustive treatments of chemical stains for woods
>written for cabinetmakers and furniture refinishers.  George Frank's two
>books are probably the most recent and most authoritative.  If anyone is
>interested, let me know and I'll dig up exact titles.

I've searched our regional public library system for 
George Frank's books without any luck :-(
If you found it convenient at some point to dig up the titles and return them
either to me or to the list, that _would_ be great.

>I don't have my references handy, but think that nitric acid was commonly
>used on maple; in particular, gunstocks for Pennsylvania rifles.  There are
>descriptions of the process in books on checkering and finishing gunstocks.

It's also long been used to darken boxwood. Yet another traditional use is on
violin bows. The acid has a startling effect on the strong, soluble dye that
gives pernambuco its color. But I've never seen process-descriptions. That
would be of interest to me.

I suspect that nitric acid may be the agent actually responsible for
producing the darkening, aging effect that occurs in today's
"ozone-generator" tanks. I've seen that tell-tale brown gas that develops if
the generator is allowed to run continuously, and from there it's only short
steps to HNO3. Does anyone have conclusive information on this?

Geo Kloppel       <geok@aol.com>