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Steven Banken's Beautiful Tannic Acid Dresser

Combining furniture design and chemistry

By Rain Noe - September 15, 2015

in Furniture Design

You could be forgiven for thinking designer Steven Banken created the piece below by stocking up on a selection of MinWax stains:

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Instead the Eindhoven graduate, who shares a studio building with Piet Hein Eek, went Walter White and created the gradations via chemistry.

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As Banken explains,

Oak contains high concentrations of tannic acid, which turns into dark blue when it's exposed to steel. The same happens with steel, as a result of a chemical reaction between red iron oxide and tannic acid. To accelerate this normally undesirable process the elements that cause this chemical reaction are applied in liquid form on the other material.

Image via View On Retail

Below is Banken's maddeningly short video showing snippets of the chemistry; there isn't much in the way of instruction, so those interested in pursuing the procedure will have to pull a Jesse Pinkman and start experimenting.

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Justin Kumpf

9 years ago

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You can also add tannic acid prior to applying the vinegar/iron oxide solution. This allows you to get much darker, even on woods that contain little tannic acid.

If, like me, you are too impatient to wait days for the steel wool to rust in the vinegar, add a bit of hydrogen peroxide to the mix. You'll be ready to go in a few minutes.

The chemistry is pretty simple. Look up iron gall ink. Same idea.

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Ben Engel

9 years ago

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I'm a Furniture maker. It's Ebonizing, very simple. Take some white vinegar, and some steel wool and non galvanized nails. Let it sit in a jar for a few weeks, brush onto woods with higher Sugar levels, Oak works the best, especially quarter-sawn white Oak. Really old technique, really simple to do.

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Abe F

9 years ago

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I'm pretty sure that technique is called Ebonizing: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/ebonizing_wood

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