Thread: Another Coffee and end table set - Black

Here a few pics of coffee and end table set I made for one of my daughters.

Both end tables are the same - top measures 24" wide by 28" long
Coffee Table top measures 24" wide by 42" long.

I made these out of rift sawn Southern Red Oak because I wanted straight open grain finish and to make them black I had a bright idea that I would try India ink... (bad idea) Never again will I use India ink. I spent all kinds of time sanding theses table to 220 then put the India ink on and their was instant grain raise... I might as well have thrown them in the creek. That's how wet the India ink made the wood. It took 3 coats of India ink to make them completely black then 5 coats of water based poly to seal them up before I could even take a piece of 220 grit sand paper to the finish without sanding through to the bare wood.

I then followed my normal finishing schedule with 6 coats of clear gloss waater based poly sanding inbetween each coat to the next progress sand paper grit. These tables ended at 1200 grit I wanted to go a little more but I ran out of clear gloss oil based poly and grew tired of the hassle.

There are much better ways to make wood black than to use India ink - like a rattle can of Rust-Oleum that would not have raised the grain like India ink did.