Mesquite treated with Muriatic acic

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Status
Not open for further replies.
jskeen

jskeen

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2007
Messages
1,754
Location
Crosby, Texas, USA.
I just couldn't stand not knowing about this after it came up in another post, so I thought I'd try it and see. All dowels cut from the same mesquite crotch piece and turned, sanded to 320 then treated and dried, sanded quickly with 600 and wiped with natural danish oil.

2007125165742_mesquite1.jpg


left to right, control, sanded and wiped with natural danish oil
dipped into acid and dried on paper towel then sanded and oiled
brushed with acid on paper towel, dried sanded and oiled
brushed with acid on clean steel wool, dried sanded and oiled
dipped into acid, rinsed with water, dried sanded and oiled

200712517048_mesquite2.jpg


closeup of treated pieces.

All of the treated pieces picked up some purple color from the treatment. it was more noticeable before finishing, and seemed to be concentrated at the edges of sapwood incursions. This tends to indicate to me that the process works, but will vary greatly from piece to piece and is not very application specific. Anyone who wants to give it a try or has some old pieces treated this way please share your results.

James
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
What percentage of acid to water did you use?

Did you neutralize the residual acid by any means after treatment?

How long did you allow the wood to be covered by the acid bath?
 
I used the acid straight from the bottle, it is 20percent per the label.

On all but the last piece I did nothing to neutralize the residual, just let it dry. the last piece I did rinse within a minute of dipping. That one did acquire some color, but i suspect that was from laying on the acid damp paper towels. I would suspect that you would need to leave the acid in contact with the wood for some time to get any reaction.

I did not soak the pieces that were dipped for any time, just dip and lay out to dry.
 
FYI... This stuff will fume and be NASTY in your shop for any exposed tools. I was using it to fume some purpleheart on my work bench and the fumes put a ton of rust on my hand planes, chisels and anything else metal in the area.
 
James,

If I understand your post correctly, you treated all of the pieces with Danish oil prior to exposure to the acid? If so, it seems that the oil might lessen the effect from the acid.
 
I was the one who mentioned it in the other thread. The process that I use is to turn to final size, sand through MM and then liberally apply the acid. let it dry completely and then add more acid. I brush it on the blank and let it set until it is completely dry. I then really do not sand much, if any. I then use a CA finish instead of oil.

The results that I have gotten have been quite consistent. I do not use any pieces with sap wood at all and my wood is quite green. How dry was the wood you used? Also, you will notice the wood will tend to loose the purple tint but will darken and look totally different that normally aged mesquite. I have a mesquite entertainment center, credenza, front doors, mantels, and a desk as well as many turnings and none of them look anything like the acid treated and aged mesquite. The acid treated stuff is more burgundy instead of the reddish brown of normally aged mesquite.
 
James,I understand we are always looking for things to better our work but why would you want to do anything to mesquite?,I use it all the time and love it just like mother nature makes it,turns good smells good and looks good.??
 
I think Curtis may have hit upon the deciding factor there. The wood I was using was "well seasoned" from being cut split and stacked for firewood. While it was not exactly dry, it was probably more water than sap from a freshly cut tree, which would probably explain the minimal reaction I got.

Unfortunately I don't have access to freshly cut mesquite to verify this theory.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom