Fixing Ammonia Fuming Effects on Sapwood

Ammonia fuming is a traditional way to stain Arts & Crafts furniture made of oak. In a nutshell, you expose the raw wood to highly concentrated ammonia fumes, and the fumes react with the tannins in the oak to darken it. That’s how I stained this Roycroft-style taboret project in the April 2022 issue of Woodworker's Journal Magazine. The effect of this chemical reaction is that it turns the raw wood to this greenish/gray color in about 24 to 48 hours. One potential problem is that White oak sapwood doesn’t contain much tannin. So, the ammonia won’t react with it and color the wood, like it does with the heartwood. In this video, we'll demonstrate a few ways to match the color of the sapwood.

[@glencrandall7051]

Very good tutorial. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay safe. 🙂🙂

[@coppulor6500]

great info!!!

[@henrysara7716]

Thank Chris and Rockler for making the clip, a tone of handy info for beginners as I'm.

[@inspectr1949]

What about brushing tea onto the sap wood to introduce tannins that react to the ammonia?

[@davidasensio6146]

Hi, I want to use ammonia to react my oak kitchen furnitures but have listen that with the time may appear stains because ammonia could react in the future with the varnish used or even with different liquids that can fall down in the furnite, creating new reactions with this. Is it possible from your experience?

[@Sarrdai]

Theoretically nearly all of the absorbed ammonia either reacts with the tannins or outgases after you let the fumed piece vent over time. I think you are safe to go if you let your piece vent a few days before you apply any varnish. The ammonia that already reacted with tannins to the darker color won't do anything because it is permanently bount in the reaction.