I’ve been working on a few projects around here lately — mostly for Christmas, but a few just for general purposes — and I wanted to share this easy DIY wood stain, because I used it in another project I’ll be sharing later.

It has several benefits.

1) It’s cheap.  (This is especially nice when you need far less than a container for your project.  Because usually that means the rest just goes to waste in your garage after you paid big bucks for it.)
2) It’s easy.
3) It’s healthier to breathe around than conventional stains.

The one downside is that it’s not as predictable as a commercial stain.  The exact color will depend on the wood you’re using.  So depending on how important it for you to obtain a specific shade, this may or may not be the stain for you.

How does the wood stain work?

This stain works based on a couple of chemical reactions.  First, when steel wool oxidizes in a jar of vinegar.  (Basically you’re making something like liquid rust.)  Second, when the resultant mixture reacts with the tannins in the wood.  This is why the shade is not reliable.  Every wood has its own unique level of tannins, so it can react more or less strongly.

How do I make the stain?

This stuff is so easy to make.  Step 1: put 1-1/2 – 2 cups of white vinegar in a jar.  Step 2: add a pad of the finest steel wool you can find.  Step 3: leave it alone.

That’s seriously pretty much it.  Don’t screw the top on the jar too tightly, so any bubbling gases can escape, but from here you just leave it sit for 3-7 days to let the steel wool break down in the vinegar.  Here’s what mine looked like when I first put it together:

When you look at it up close, you can already see bubbles forming on the steel wool.

A day later, you can start to see the rust on the surface.  It looks pretty gross and slimy.  Underneath, you can see little floating bits of steel wool that have disintegrated from the “sponge.”

Day three, it’s really getting serious.  (I used mine after this, so I have no more pictures after day three.)

How do I use it?

This stuff is pretty easy to use, too.  Since I didn’t leave mine ’til the steel wool was completely broken down, I just dipped my brush in around it and tried to pick up liquid and not floating bits.  (I personally chose to use a foam brush, but whatever works best for you is fine.)

Now, because of how this works, it’s a little weird.  When you first paint it on, it’s clear or almost clear — and then you can watch it darken as it interacts with the tannins in the wood.  I don’t have any pictures of immediately after I painted it on, because my hands were tied up!  But here you can get a bit of an idea.  See those dowels?  The leftmost one has been painted the longest, then the next one to the right.  The one to the right of that is most-recently painted (about as long as it took me to carry it to the other room and stand it up to take the picture), and the one on the far right is still unpainted.

Here’s another example of stained vs. unstained:

And of the stain on a different wooden surface:

(It will stain your fingers orange, though, if you get it on them.  Just be warned.)

There are some tips and tricks.  You can’t control the wood.  However, you can influence the depth of the stain by adding tannins from an outside source.  Black tea and coffee are common options.  If you first paint the wood with a high-tannin liquid, then add the stain, the stain will get darker, because it will have more to react with.

Here we have three disks.  The first is unstained.  The second is stained just with the straight stain.  The second was dipped in steeped tea, and then painted with the stain.  See how much darker it got?  (Some options will also add a little bit different color cast, too, though.  The tea, for instance, seems to make it lean grey.  So be sure you test on a scrap piece first if the color is really important to you.)