The sides of this box have a deep black color that looks like ebony. But rather than using an expensive wood, I used ordinary maple. To get the dark color, I used India ink. The process is simple, but there are a few details I want to highlight. You could use dye, if you prefer, but I’ve had better results with the colorfast ink. Since I had to color the sides separately, I decided to also dye the case and lid before assembly.
Since the sides are going to be ebonized, I decided to pre-raise the grain of the wood by wiping on a little water. After a few minutes, I sanded the pieces again with 220- grit sandpaper. This way, the grain won’t swell as much when I apply the ink to ebonize the pieces. After final sanding, start by using the dropper to spread a liberal amount of ink on the surface.
With a disposable foam brush, spread the ink across the surface, working it into the grain as much as possible. When the ink is dry, I assembled the box and finished it with a few coats of spray lacquer.
