The simplest way to stain wood black

This week I tried a new method to stain some gorgeous ash stool legs completely black. The results surprised me!

Enjoyed the video? Give it a LIKE and leave me a comment with what you think of my project, and what I could have done differently.

If you'd like to follow along with my future projects.

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Hi, I'm Pete. Northern Works is all about DIY furniture and home improvement projects that help us to consume less, and create more. I've got an ever-growing list of projects, and I'm excited to learn how to build things that I want to use, and that we'd love to see around our home.

If you value great design, but want to consume less of the fast furniture, then I'd love for you to join our community here on YouTube where we can learn together and share ideas.

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What I used in this video:

[rollingstone]

Super nice depth!! My favorite version I’ve seen in the whole World Wide Web 👍👍

[VoodooMike]

I think you could have tried doing it the other way round to get the same result in fewer coats. Stain first to penetrate, then ink on top to give the rich finish. I've done that on pine and it looked lush.

[trishjordan]

LoL my very first thought when you started to open the jar was, where are his gloves, he is going to regret that.😂

[keithhagler]

I use alcohol based leather dye a lot. Yours turned out very nice.

[mvyper]

Leather dyes also work wonderfully, and you can use them together to create blend and fade effects. Angelus is a great brand.

[crouch]

Hoping this helps me stain my Oak desk black, I'm guessing you always need some kind of oil added at the end to seal it up?

[PhaedruS]

Came here for the India Ink technique, left wondering who the hell has a Christmas tree trunk THAT large??

[Mouse]

Looks fantastic. I'm going to try this on a little wooden keepsake box I have.

[itsthepens]

Came here just for more ideas, as I’m currently planning a full kitchen finish on unfinished oak using India ink and, as it happens, Oslo Polyx as well! I’m planning to lime/ceruse over the ink, so in my case the fact that it doesn’t penetrate to the full depth of the grain shouldn’t matter as it will be filled by white wax anyway. I’m also planning to use the gloss Polyx oil for a really old school polished finish. However now I’ve seen your gorgeous legs (hehe) I might just do black stain and India ink then the gloss Polyx. DECISIONS DECISIONS…

[delfordchaffin]

Can I ask how much of that 50ml bottle it took for those legs? I'm looking to do a table top and wondered how much I could expect 50ml to cover. Thanks!

[JBJHN]

Indian ink applied with foam brush, osmo oil none scratch pad. Worked well on oak and pine round the house. Table can easily be refinished when life scratches it up. Good work.

[michaelwillson]

Pete seems really random right but squid ink mixed with little water it's like charcoal black I've also seen people use charcoal powder and water 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[acfzzzzz]

I really don't know much about India ink, can waterproof India ink be used, or are there certain India inks that cannot be used for this?

[stvnrncmn]

Did you have any issues glueing to the ink or stain? Was it just an aesthetic choice to not stain the tenons on the legs?