374. Fletch Hiner on Creating a Dress Black Stain With Iron/Vinegar Solution
PETE GEEK PSAs Full of Beans: I was blown away by the response for the Pete Geek Mugs. We’ve passed 150. Incredible. Deneen’s digital artwork mockup will be posted as soon as it arrives. Until then, you can look on my amateur effort seen above for the Ramsey mug. Last Call for XL5BCs: Smokingpipes.com is sold out, however Smokingpipes Europe has three. Two are solid (NOT filtered) and one is 9mm filtered. This is a first-come, first-served thing, and here are the codes: PPN 2023 Sandblasted (XL5s) P-Lip (9mm filter) SMOKINGPIPES EUROPE (Last one!) https://www.smokingpipes.eu/sneakpeek.cfm?product_ID=169524 PPN 2023 Sandblasted (XL5s) P-Lip SMOKINGPIPES EUROPE (Two available!) https://www.smokingpipes.eu/sneakpeek.cfm?product_ID=169504 If the code doesn’t work, the pipe is sold. Thanks to all the Pete Geeks who made this year’s POY such a success. This morning I'm happy to again welcome Fletch Hiner, CPG, with his DIY account of a Dress Black finish using the iron-vinegar solution discussed in Post #370 and Post #367. DRESS BLACK STAIN WITH IRON/VINEGAR SOLUTION by Fletch Hiner, CPG I started my solution by heating my vinegar to approximately 142 degrees using a coffee cup warmer (this is what use for pickling silver work as well). I left the steel wool in the solution for about two weeks for maximum effect. Instead of using an estate pipe that is potentially packed full of old stain, tar, oils, and old finish, I started out with two unfinished (not Peterson) pipes from a whole box I had acquired at a pipe show. These pipes were completely virgin, never stained, finished, or smoked--I also did not have any suitable Peterson estate pipes for this experiment! LOL. While I was waiting for the solution, I stained one of the pipes with Fiebing’s USMC Black dye for a control comparison. After two coats of stain set with an alcohol lamp and dried for 24 hours, I applied a coat of Antique Oil finish and rubbed it out. After the oil dried, I buffed the pipe with tripoly and then applied a heavy coat of beeswax with a loose cotton buff at 1725rpm. With the Fiebing dyed pipe finished, it was time to move to the other pipe. I immersed the pipe in the strained iron/vinegar solution at 142F for about 35 minutes. After one immersion and drying I wasn’t satisfied with what I saw, so I immersed it for another 35 minutes. This seemed sufficient, so I moved on to oiling. As I did with the Fiebing’s dye control pipe, I rubbed on a single coat of Antique Oil finish and allowed it to dry. This turned the pipe completely black. Once the oil finish dried, I buffed the pipe and applied a heavy coat of beeswax. With both stummels stained, dyed and finished I moved on to the stems, giving them a polish and bending them to shape. Fiebing’s dye pipe in the foreground with the iron/vinegar dye pipe in the background: It’s tough to tell the difference in…