The setup is really quite simple. You set up a transformer such as is used for neon signs, rated at 110V that steps up to 9000V. Attach a plug in on the 110V side. To the 9000V side you attach two heavy wires, insulated - say 6 gauge. These then go into a plexiglas box from opposite sides and then approach each other. The last 4-5" of insulation is removed from the ends of each and these are arranged so that a continuous spark will be produced. A simple fixture is used to hold the woodwind pieces somewhere in the box but not too close. The spark causes two separate chemical reactions in air to take place: the formation of ozone as well as the formation of HNO3 (nitrous). You run it for a while - taking care to keep upwind of this thing. For some reason the addition of some moisture inside such as a damp paper towel helps. I would keep a respectful distance from the device (don’t use it while its raining!) and certainly do it outside on a flat, dry surface.
Basically the surface of the boxwood gets oxidized by the O3 and HNO3. The wood underneath remains unstained. A neutralizer such as a baking soda solution or smelling salts applied afterwards will stop any reaction. My limited experience with this is that it produces much better results per my experience than acid staining. Also, I don’t like having nitric acid around!
I’ll probably try this on some of my more expensive flutes - and continue to send out boxwood Folk Flutes unstained. I actually really like the naturally aged boxwood too. But later this winter I wanted to set up and try some new techniques, and I wanted to share this method here.
Casey
(By the way - please don’t rush to “friend” me on that Facebook account. Its for mostly friends who I actually see instead of just online and family. I don;t have the time. But if you are interested in a copy of a Mozart period basset horn, email me. I’d love to make more of these someday. Thanks!)
Hi Casey,
That color is quite lovely and I do think it would be very marketable. I have a huge French boxwood rolling pin that I have had for about 15 years that is the same great color!
I wonder if one of those ozone generating machines would do the same thing. We have one that we bought when we moved into this house to get rid of some smoke odors left by the previous owners. On the higher setting it really cranks it out.
Send the flutes to me, Casey. Don’t mess around with that dangerous apparatus that you described. I’ll set them outside on one of our “ozone alert” days, and a couple of hours of exposure should do the trick. Better yet, send them to one of the guys in Los Angeles, although they may get overdone and turn really dark down there.
You guys prattling on about your local environments reminds me of a total surprise I had about Alaska. A flute I had sent there got damaged by a sitting-on incident. When it was returned for surgery, I was stunned by the condition of the silverware. I had visualised Alaska as a pristine wilderness, but the silverware was black! I quizzed the owner whether she live near an old-fashioned producer-gas plant (the only thing in my experience that produced sulphides in those amounts). No, she explained, it was just the pollution caused by domestic cookers and fireplaces. In her view, people up there regard any kind of regulation as unacceptable, so, for practical purposes, the right to pollute has been adopted into the constitution.
I remember learning about Pittsburgh’s success in fighting pollution 50 years ago in high school in Australia:
Unfortunately, Alaska seems to be a long way behind!
Yes, Terry, Alaska has changed, and not for the best. In the mid-1950’s my Aunt would come down to the lower forty-eight on small planes from Kodiak Island, and claimed she could smell Seattle from two hundred miles out. . .
I had to do a photo shoot in a Tacoma Paper mill back in the 90s. They gave us these little “gas mask” kits to wear on our belts and told us that if an alarm went off we should, “put that on and run in the same direction as everyone else.”
Ya gotta love that sulphiting process. When I worked fabricating stainless steel piping for paper mills it was always amazing to see what dilute sulphite solution at temperature did to even the highest grades of stainless over time.
