A little note about RED oak and WHITE oak, both red and white oak can look identical. Some red oak is actually white in color, and some white oak is actually red in color. The big difference between red oak and white oak is the grain. Red oak has open grain, and white oak has tiny closed grain; therefore the reason white oak generally lasts much longer in the natural elements. And a note on sanding wood that is to be stained, if you sand with no finer than 180 grit the wood will accept the stain more readily. Experiment for yourself with sanding wood blanks. Try staining wood sanded in 120, 180, 220, and 400 grit paper. You may be quite surprised by the outcome. 😃

I am 100% impressed and grateful for this video! I’m interested in bleaching my great grandmothers maple table and I desperately needed to know! Thank you so much!

Wow, thank you so much! This is the best and extensive information/tutorial I found on bleaching wood. I now feel confident about bleaching my coffee table and hopefully remove the yellow/orange hue from the wood!

Absolutely great video, it’s projects like this that become real research tools for us cabinet makers, thanks for all the effort!

Hi Tamar! Thanks for another wonderful video!...I was once told by a professional cabinet maker that you can obtain cherry-like results using popular. I think you have made the connection by bleaching out the green tint so common in poplar leaving some lovely grain features! Thank you!

I love your style: doing a lot of research and testing before fully committing to a project. Improvising is for quick problem solving, not for starting the work. You deserve (at least) five stars for dedication.

Than you, so much, Sister! I'm currently rehabilitating my 1954 red oak flooring, and I was pleasantly surprised to find you, with this :) Appreciate you.

I recently did shou sugi ban on some white pine. After wire brushing off the ash, I applied a white wood stain and then wiped off the excess. Really great effect. The wood is white from the stain, but the darkened wood grain from the shou sugi ban burn shows through. I was really please with the outcome. This video is a little different than that, but I thought it relates. Love your content! Keep it up!

Can I “double 👍🏼 “ this video? I hate to think how long it took you to create this video but it has been incredibly helpful to me on multiple occasions and I am not a woodworker or a carpenter by any stretch of the imagination. I’m doing creative projects around my own home and clients homes. I’ve returned to watch your wood bleaching experiment time and time again. Love that it’s so thorough, informative and entertaining! Thank you!

Great effort! You went the extra mile on this one, thanks! Sanding can impact absorption as well. Stopping at 180 grit can yield some interesting differences.

I was looking for this information a couple of years ago. This is the most comprehensive set of tests I've seen. Thanks very much.

this was so thorough! I loved seeing the different bleaching and finishes

What a great and thorough video! Thanks for all of your hard work and thorough notes! I feel like I just watched an interesting science experiment!

Thanks for sharing, awesome demonstration of the use of different products and the effects on different wood

Very cool and in-depth test and analysis - thanks!

Wow! What a lot of work and a ton of great results. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for such a super thorough and great video!! I was worried you had forgotten about ash in your summary of the two-part bleaches @20 but so glad you do mention it around @24:23. It does look great and is what I was hoping to find as a begin a project in ash for which I want a very clean bright white-ish ash. So, again, well done and thank you!

A great demonstration to help us understand the various options and results. Thanks for your diligence!

Thank you for the video! I will keep you posted on how it turns out😃

Best video related to this topic I have seen. This was super useful. I'm so glad you shared. Thank you!

I know its an older video, but I just need to share two things. 1) Thank you for this video! Love being able to see real life tests! 2) Forgive me. As a former chem teacher just wanted to pass along that safety glasses are nice, but if you are handling chemicals you might want to get your self a pair of splash proof goggles and a labcoat. I can type and see this and your vids today thanks to wearing splash proofs in college. A rather large explosion of chemicals got me in the face and body. I have a tiny scar and my sight. The only thing I was out of? the clothing I was wearing took about 100 pinhole sized splashes of chemical that I didn't know were there until I took the clothing out of the wash. Burn marks and holes everywhere. Not that they were all that nice of clothing, but I could have saved them with a labcoat. This has been my Ted talk. :)

Thank you for sharing the experiment. I am new to wood working and am trying to get an idea of different finishes and how to apply them to different projects. This one was fun to watch.

This is great! Thank you for all your hard work!

I absolutely love it! Great process, and it didn't take a ton of time and money to provide empirical answers before potentially ruining a large project. I've been plagued by delays in making decisions for fear of damaging a project. Having hands-on data helps a ton with that anxiety.

Loved your scientific approach to showing multiple methods, products& materials and labeling the methods on tape. Only cons I have are talked Thur results a little fast for me and wished you had included a knotty pine material. Great job!

Tamar, love this tutorial. The show and tell was amazing. The variety of the sample woods is outstanding. You've helped alot of us showing the before and Afters of each type of wood. Keep up the good work and I'll keep watching all your videos. 👍🏻🇺🇸

One of your best uploads. Thank you for all the effort.

That was a lot of work! Thank you for your time and effort it’s greatly appreciated. 👍

Love the big experiment. I have bleached a bunch of maple and ash. If you really want to go for a super white finish you need to put on way more bleach and let it self dry overnight, then repeat that 2 and possible 3 times. It's really a cool transformation. Then apply Briwax brand liming wax. Liming wax is the only finish I use. Nothing else. Turns out really cool. Love your channel. No matter how much I think I know, I always learn something new.

Cheers! Was looking how to make maple bone white. Neat comprehensive overview of finishes.

I love this video. I've had a problem with some woods (I favor maple) and your examples help. Thank you!

Looking forward to the table you're going to make using the bleaching technique! Thanks for all your hard work in comparing the different methods. I do testing but wouldn't have the patience to go that far. I was holding my breath as you were using those bleaching techniques wearing nice dark colored tops and jacket. No doubt I would have gotten bleached spots on them!

loved that video . I use straight bleach it seems to work for me I have used it on several types of wood seemed to work best on mahogany (honduras) then wash dry and spar varnish

I had been thinking about how I could make tonewoods for instruments paler, white, or pearlescent white without doing a UV bleaching process. It had been knocking around my head for a while when I finally sat down and searched for ways to do it, and wouldn't you know, Tamar already did a video about it. In my head, I went "Yes!" Because I knew that in 20 minutes time my questions would be answered, because your videos are always perfect in my opinion. Especially how set out with your best attempt at being comprehensive (and do a great job of it), then encounter one or two problems or oversights, and then explain them honestly and kind of, call yourself out on them if that makes sense? This is one of the most refreshing, valuable and rare tendencies in people who make videos. Those are some of the most valuable learning moments, I love them. The fact that 99% of folks edit out all of their mistakes and just smile, means that thousands of their audience members will go ahead and make the mistakes that were edited out and then feel like fools for making them. It also changes the feel of a video a lot too, changing things from a top down teacher/student lecture dynamic, to more of a friendly coworker dynamic. Like "Hey, I did this project, some stuff worked, some didn't, I didn't anticipate this problem, so watch out when you're doing yours". I feel like your videos save me lots of making mistakes and feeling frustrated with myself because I was lucky enough to have gotten a heads up from you. I really appreciate it. You do really fantastic work.

Thanks for spending the money to do all that. I love videos like this. They help narrow down the options, which saves us viewers lots of money and unused product! Much appreciated!

Wow. What a super interesting test. Thank you so much for doing this. Great job!

So cool to watch these experiments. Thanks for sharing!

Super comparisons! You've helped me a ton. I know this took a lot of time to assemble

Very helpful. You video gave me the idea to experiment with both a 2 component bleach and oxalic acid to remove the green tint coated with a clear shellac or rice wax finish. Thanks for the inspiration.

Another awesome video, with tons of useful info. I'm adding this vid to my "Excellent Tutorials" playlist. Thanks so much for all your detailed work, and your excellent presentation. Thumbs way up!

I've never bleached wood before and really appreciate the information on how to. thank you for your time

Brilliant video! The timing of this video could not be more perfect for me: I'm just about to white-wash/stain and poly finish the first piece of furniture I've made. I'm using Mango wood and white stain + water polyurethane and have already made several samples. I think I might have to try a couple of samples of Osmo + Homebrew bleach - the Mango wood has white, grey, yellow, orange and brown tones so the results should be interesting! Thanks again for the detailed break down!

BTW, I'm so impressed that you were able to catalog and speak to each method and the results of each as you compared them. I'm not sure I would have been able to keep it all straight! 👍🏻🇺🇸

Great video, thanks for sharing your experience. Heads up on Sodium Hydroxide… it can dissolve glass when heated. It needs to be a high concentration and the temp needs to be pretty high but I’d always use plastic when mixing and/or storing JIC. Hope to see the big project that comes from this experiment in the future.

Awesome video Tamar! I really like what you found with the poplar. Now I can make some nice hardwood projects with one of the cheapest hardwoods and not worry about the ugly green hues. It looks so good! I really appreciate all the effort to put this together, super helpful!

Thank you SO MUCH for doing the work! I have a decision to make on 75 cabinet doors and a dozen interior doors. This was so helpful! 🙏

Very cool! Thanks for sharing your research. Gotta love a good bunch of material samples.

I love experiments with organized results!

Def gained a new follower! Im trying to figure out a solution for a customer and this was mega helpful and in all a great watch! Also thankful i have some dalys in the shop! Now i just have to figure which rubio will go a top of bleached nogol! Thanks for doing the legwork👊

What a lot of work. Thank you.

Brilliant video and so informative. Thanks very much!

Hi, thanks for this. This is exactly the reason I first signed up for KZfaq. A well put together video that saves me having to reinvent the wheel. I’m looking to get a driftwood finish and whilst this isn’t exactly the same it definitely gives me a great starting point. KZfaq only allows me to give one thumbs up so have a few more 👍👍👍👍👍.

I’ve used ~70% bleach to water to bleach teak yacht decks. We just applied it with a stiff bristle deck brush and rinsed with fresh water after about 20 minutes. It gives a clean light look. Scrubbing it in with the brush gets it into the grain and helps keep the color even.

Interesting results!!! I build a kids bed a few years back and the desired em finish was whitewash…. I ended up using regular emulsion but applied it with a cotton rag. Rubbing into to wood. Was so quick and easy and dries really really fast. Can just build up to desired look with multiple coats

Excellent excellent! Well done video! Thank you!!

Really fantastic work and a whole bunch of excellent information. Thanks!

I’ve bleached a lot of floors and always hated the process and smells, loved the video thou!!

Thank you again for your hard work! This is exceedingly useful information.

Wow, Tamar! I know that project was an investment of time and effort, but what amazing, interesting results! Definitely a quality resource for out-of-the-box-thinking woodworkers.

Thanks for all the effort! I had a piece of furniture a long time ago that was a white washed maple. Kinda messed around with some of these methods (except the osmo.) Found a pretty pleasing result by just using a liming wax at the very end. Looks pretty good on red oak as well.

Thanks for the video. It'll be a good reference in the future. I have a lot of wood swatches laying around my shop with different finishes; glad I don't need to make a dozen more for bleaching.

Interesting findings. As a chemist, I recommend anyone doing these processes to wear goggles, gloves, and labcoat(tyvek from big box store may work) in a well ventilated area. Lye and hydrogen peroxide are corrosive and caustic. For more accurate information on safety, read the specifications or look up the material safety data sheet for the chemical online.

You put a lot of effort in this video and did a very good job explaining. Thank you

This is awesome, great work and thank you for all the information!

Excellent, thorough comparison. Thanks

Thankyou for making this. Your well thought out testing method made me quite happy :)

I do a lot of custom veneer work for concept vehicles. I've had very good luck thinning down regular white automotive tint with lacquer thinner. Thin it down quite a bit and spray many light coats, being patient, allowing it to dry between coats until desired finish is obtained. Be careful not to coat too heavy or it'll get blotchy. Only catch is, you have to spray it with a normal auto paint sprayer. It'll turn white, leaving the tonal details visible.

Another great comparison test Tamar! Bleaching is such a great finish to be able to do but it always requires a lot of pretesting. Your video provides a lot of interesting data as a starting point. I also like the Osmo products but found they too take a lot of pre testing, especially the Wood Wax stain, in order to see consistent results.

Some of those finishes are pretty cool, even if that's not what you're looking for. Thanks for doing this. Gives us references without having to do the testing.

Excellent video. I am finding, as I work on some projects, I need to do testing on each type of wood I use. And this includes fillers, and stains, and how they interact, etc. I bought a precut Tele guitar body, and now I wish I had just purchased a blank, so I would have had scrap to test how I want to finish it.

Great video! I will certainly try the 2 part bleach on my next maple project!

Lots of work. Whew! Thank you!!

Thanks for sharing those tips and the make!

So helpful. Thank you Tamar.

What a mission! Thank you for doing this!

Thank you for doing this experiment. Relevant to an upcoming project. 👍

This is a GREAT video! I am loving the comparisons of the finishes, and seeing how much colour they would add. (In the end, I just like the osmo hard wax the best, even though it changes the colour.) thanks!

Excellent test and presentation. Saved me tons of effort and frustration.

Great informative video👍👍. I am wanting to bleach teak so would have loved to see that too.

Once again another great post. I think you’re fantastic.

very informative Tamar. thanks for sharing this video.

I appreciate the scientific measurement plan. It's very helpful and cost effective to your audience.

I always enjoy your experiments!

Nice test. Thank you!

I often use oxalic acid to clean timber decks. I only ever wash it off with water. Takes the ‘silvering’ off hardwood back towards the original colour. Love your work 👍

Fascinating stuff! Thanks for sharing!

Thank You Tamar. I love all your KZfaq videos. GOD bless 🙏

Adding the kerf lines - masterstroke. Only you would take the time and trouble to do that. Chapeau, Tamar.

Great video. Super in depth and surprising. I could have used this info years ago. Those test samples could be an art project! Mahalo for sharing! : )

Neat video, liked your thought with the Walnut.

You put a huge effort into that thanks so much.

You started bleaching walnut and my inner soundtrack was playing Sheryl Crow “ if it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad” 😉✌️

Very cool. All your videos are fascinating.

This was sooooo useful! I've always avoided poplar because of all the colors - greens and purples - but oxalic acid will make it a viable choice in some of my projects. Thanks for providing a comprehensive review of techniques.

Excellent video

Your videos are really great.

This is a great video! Thank you very much!

Great video, thanks for 'doing the work' for many of us . . .

Awesomely informative!, thanks for sharing!

Really useful 'experiment' and will save me having to repeat something similar. Thanks for this👍👍