Home made vinegar wood stain

Stains that work this well should cost a fair bit. Since we know how it is done we can pass it on without the middle man. This stain is used for treating you scale wood purchased from suppliers like Mt Albert Scale Lumber. The wood is milled to scale, but in its raw state looks too new to work on our dirty railroad layouts. White vinegar works for aged/weathered spruce, pine or fir. Commonly found in the east. Malt vinegar, for the red woods of the west.

This stain doesn't have a long shelf life and considering how well it works. It would make sense to make as small a bottle of vinegar you can find.

In last post I talked about the preparation of some Grey stain for some upcoming projects. A few years ago I was told about a stain that replicated red wood using malt vinegar by fellow club member Curt Harron. More recently while discussing this stain with a fellow modeler I was guided towards using white vinegar to create a Grey version.

So in my usual style I jumped in with both feet. I added a fistfull of steel wool to a jug of white vinegar and let it sit on the bench. I shouldn't have added the lid as by morning it popped off and left a puddle on the bench. The acid in the vinegar converts to a gas when dissolving the steel and needs to be vented or, POP.

After twenty four hours I decided to try out the stain. Dipping a large piece of scale wood (for demonstration purposes) I dipped it once and let sit on the jug lid. I wanted to see what one application would produce.

The next morning I took this photo. I am pleased with the level of colour on the stick, the colour does seam to be a touch purple though. Maybe the colour will continue to change. I dipped another small stick twice, leaving some time in between applications.

This picture show the puddle left after the lid popped off. Notice how the jip board has stained even through the glues in the wood.

• Steel wool that is clean and clear of any oils or other additives.

• Vinegar of any kind. White creates a grayish colour, Malt and reddish, west coast colour.

• A tool to punch a vent in the Vinegar jug lid.
  

The process of dissolving steel wool cause it to releases some gases. In light of this we need to either make a hole in the lid of the vinegar bottle. Or allow the process to complete (72 hours or so) before we place the lid on the vinegar bottle.

Pull out a ball of steel wool, a small fistful should do. Pull it into a string, so it will fit into the vinegar bottle top. Submerge the wool into the vinegar and leave it for 48-72 hours with either the lid off of vented, as this process produces a gas.

When your ready to stain the wood the steel wool should be dissolved, if not thats alright. Dip the wood pieces into the stain and let sit over night on the work bench.

I put some stained decking into the microwave and black spots looking like knots appeared.

The results is an invaluable base for wood modeling. Paint will peal, underneath is just what you find out in the prototype, aged wood.