This is what a waterborne, chemical stain does to wood. Potassium Dichromate - traditional activator for darkening mahogany, oak and other materials is so easy to use. Not sure it's available or legal and what little I have, I keep stretching by diluting it again and this still happens! Raises the grain which is good for finishing and makes poreless finishing a doddle. Rub throughs are very difficult because of the penetration of the stain.
When I was at school in the 1940's we had wood work classes..I still remember the teacher Mr Paige and we used to use potassium permanganate to stain the wood it left a light brownish slightly orange finnish I remember...I looked it up on Google and came up with this lot.
Recently I have been collecting and 'restoring' a few old guitars. From other restorers on Youtube, I have discovered 2 new additions to my workshop. Oxalic acid is use to de-oxidise ie clean up dark marks such as old cracks and potassium permanganate is used to oxidise ie darken or age wood. New braces or material used to fill wide soundboard cracks can be disguised with potasssium permanganate solution which despite its bright purple colour does not turn the wood purple. Oxalic acid will reverse the effect of the permanganate. Both material were obtained via Ebay.
Both potassium dichromate and permanganate are listed as oxidising agents.
Here is a soundboard thats been wiped over with permanganate after several cracks were glued and slivers were added to wide cracks and the whole thing sanded before refinishing.
I'm thinking of using this on new uke soundboards.
