: Hi Dwight,
: Am I the only one that doesn't know this process? How did you
: 'ebonize' and 'bleach' your WRC?
: Sorry if you explained it on your facebook pages- the print is too
: small for me to read on my puter.
: Isn't there a chance that your sander will cut right through these
: treatments and you'll loose the effect
: of ebonizing or bleaching in those places?
: Michael
Bill Hamm described the ebonizing procedure in this thread: http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Building/index.cgi/md/read/id/199149/sbj/strip-ebonizing/
It, unfortunately, just affects the surface so I presanded the strips before 'painting' with the iron/vinegar solution. I'm expecting to have to repeat it on at least some areas after fairing but I'm just using these strips on the deck next to the sheer strip so I'll be able to protect the hull from any runoff and just carefully cut in the solution in areas next to 'unebonized' areas. Even if some other areas become dark due to the solution running over, I can lightly sand the mistakes to remove it.

I tried a few different processes for the bleaching with the best results coming from household chlorine bleach. I'd also tried a preparation that contained oxalic and citric acids. I'd used it to brighten the cedar siding on my house and it works great for lightening aged wood, but really didn't affect the 'new' cedar much even when I left it on for several hours. There are a couple of other discussions on the site saying bleach does not interfere with epoxy but I decided to follow the chlorine treatment (which is alkaline) with the oxalic acid and then a water rinse to make sure the pH wasn't too far from neutral. Even though the bleach didn't lighten the wood as much as I'd hoped, it seems to have penetrated pretty well. You need to sand quite deep to get down to the original color so I'm not planning to do any more to those strips after they are on the boat.

There was another suggestion of using a peroxide bleaching method but I didn't go to the trouble of trying it (as it is a fairly toxic material).

I will, of course, post photos of the finished boat so people can see for themselves how well this experiment works.

Dwight