Saga of the Floors II: It's never that simple.

Sure, I don't think the words "cautious" or "methodical" are the first to come to mind when someone says "Josh Murphy".  I've cultivated a bit of a reputation for being spontaneous, and for not following conventions all the time, for better or worse.  But I try not to fool around with wood, so I did several tests with my Vinegar/Steel wool solution, and determined it was ready to go. I then diluted it several times to allow me to fine-tune the ebonizing process, and added a drop of dish soap to break surface tension to allow better absorption.

So I mopped it on the whole LR floor.










And I got:












(Reminder: "There are chemical processes going on here that I don't understand.")

Maybe I should just keep it that way.  Sure as hell will distract from the stains.

Second coat.

This is no good.  Time to cook up a stronger batch, in a hurry:

Coat 3, the next day.  Grr.  Must be residual oxalic acid. I'll keep adding iron to the floor, and eventually, it will use up all the oxalate. Right?

Okay.  Not bad.  

What will it look like finished?

Still splotchy,. though.  

Maybe some baking soda?

(Sadly missing are pictures of the insanity that followed.  Baking soda turned a whole section super-brown overnight, and necessitated a full 80 and 100 grit resanding of the LR)

Skipping a few meanwhiles, here we are after monocoat: I intentionally sanded down some of the ebonizing to blend out some of the perma-bleached areas.

My whole house smells like linseed oil.  Which is WAY better than smelling like denatured alcohol, thinner, acetone, and/or assorted VOCs

Short story: should have sanded way deeper, and none of this would have been so hard. Tough to do when your grain runs in all different directions.