Bert2368
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2018
- Messages
- 1,312
- Reaction score
- 1,546
I keep seeing references to bog oak in knife handles here, I have never used this material and don't know how it behaves as far as stability towards moisture and general durability against handling wear. It certainly does look nice in some uses.
I DID see it written that an attempt to make the black keys on a much used organ keyboard from bog oak wasn't satisfactory due to high wear, leading to an early replacement. I suspect that unstabilised bog oak is not as durable as ordinary oak?
I did a small batch of "torrefied" white oak very recently. The oak turned a range of colors from medium to dark brown, not the really dark grey/black of the bog oak I see others have used.
I am considering using a couple of the scraps of the heat treated oak for an experiment in "fuming" it with ammonia gas, this is a common technique to darken oak and some other woods.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia_fuming
You can get normaly dried white oak to turn nearly jet black with a long enough fuming session, although the color doesn't extend all the way through thicker pieces of wood as the heat treat color change does.
I have NO idea what the heat treatment may have done to the tannins in the wood which are what react with ammonia and artificially darken the oak, or if this will work at all after the heat treatment.
Anyone got a clue about this?
(Below are some pictures of heat treated oak, will post experimental results later).
I DID see it written that an attempt to make the black keys on a much used organ keyboard from bog oak wasn't satisfactory due to high wear, leading to an early replacement. I suspect that unstabilised bog oak is not as durable as ordinary oak?
I did a small batch of "torrefied" white oak very recently. The oak turned a range of colors from medium to dark brown, not the really dark grey/black of the bog oak I see others have used.
I am considering using a couple of the scraps of the heat treated oak for an experiment in "fuming" it with ammonia gas, this is a common technique to darken oak and some other woods.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia_fuming
You can get normaly dried white oak to turn nearly jet black with a long enough fuming session, although the color doesn't extend all the way through thicker pieces of wood as the heat treat color change does.
I have NO idea what the heat treatment may have done to the tannins in the wood which are what react with ammonia and artificially darken the oak, or if this will work at all after the heat treatment.
Anyone got a clue about this?
(Below are some pictures of heat treated oak, will post experimental results later).
Last edited: