Fumed Oak Bench

Here's a small bench I recently finished up.  The legs are white oak, the back rails are red oak, and the back slats are sycamore.  The seat is reed woven in a herringbone pattern.  For this piece I fumed the oak in a small tent using ammonia.  This process was used widely during the hey day of the Arts and Crafts movement, including companies such as Roycroft and Stickley.  

 I'm not really sure about chemistry, but the short version is the ammonia reacts with the tannins in the wood resulting in a beautiful rich brown.  My friend Pete Galbert also uses this process on butternut.  Above you can see the bench before the fuming process.

 Here's the tent ready to go.  All I did was fill two small bowls with household ammonia and replaced it daily for a week or so.  It's pretty nasty stuff, so be careful.

And here is the full frontal view of the fumed bench with a wipe-on varnish and the seat woven and done.  I did these shots myself, so better ones to follow.  Overall I was pretty happy with the bench.  I made a few mistakes that I fixed up and I'll know better next time.  But the color and richness is really nice.

 Below you can see (hopefully) the difference between the white oak post, the red oak rails, and the sycamore slats.  If I do do another one, it will be all white oak, no red, and I will keep the sycamore...it turned a beautiful reddish. 

Here's a good look at the seat.  I did a small chair a few years back with a reed woven seat  and swore I'd never do it again.  But here I am.  I did tape up my finger tips, the reed will take the skin right off, especially because the the reed must be wet when you weave.  The seat looks great with the herringbone pattern, a simple method of over three, under three, over three etc.  It always amazes me how strong these seats are.

Like I said, I'm happy with the bench.  I want to start doing more contemporary pieces as the more traditional pieces are simply not selling.  I also feel that with society becoming more and more urban, that maybe pieces like this bench and the rocker I posted a few weeks ago, that maybe those pieces will fit into an apartment setting better then a more traditional Windsor.  At least that's the hope--time will tell.  Well, I'm gonna  watch the Red Sox game, hope they end their September swoon and pull this one out, finger crossed..

Oh,  how about my beloved Buffalo Bills!  That win over the Pats was a long time coming, hope they can hold it together and have a good season, GO BILLS!!!  and I'm not jumping on the band wagon, I've been a fan since Jim Kelly and Marv Levy were there.