Steel Wool Vinegar Wood Stain Tea. It may just be vinegar but it's a serious stain. I had read that distilled vinegar and steel wool would turn wood gray, so i mixed up a batch of that. Using vinegar as a wood stain vinegar works as a wood stain when you add a metal object in the mix and let it sit in a glass container for a week.
In addition to the steel wool and vinegar solution, you will also need sandpaper for the initial sanding (i used 120 grit), black tea bags, a cheap paintbrush, 220 grit pine wood lacks tannin content, but tannin occurs in tea, and the steel wool and vinegar will react with the tea stain and darken the wood.
Tea, like the oak wood, has tannins in it, and so reacts with the vinegar and bends the mixture to a darker color. It may just be vinegar but it's a serious stain. I've been using vinegar steel wool stain for a while but was looking for a way to speed up the process. Stains made with steel wool and vinegar range from a reddish, rusty brown, to a very dark, burnt brown. Want your furniture project even darker? (be on the left is minwax's dark walnut, and the right is the diy wood stain. I guess it's probably a good idea to let the steel wool disintegrate completely (and it was well on its way) but i'm impatient. Use this simple trick to revamp distilled white vinegar gave the wood sample on the left more of a reddish/brownish hue.
