PSA: Yes, You Absolutely Can Ammonia Fume With Regular Household Strength Ammonia
DISCLAIMER: Even regular household ammonia is caustic, poisonous and highly irritating. Use proper PPE. Rubber or nitrile gloves, splash proof glasses and proper ventilation. Never mix ammonia with any other cleaning product.
I apologize if there are people for whom this is obvious information, but I was having a lot of trouble finding it. I wanted to fume these white oak mugs to get a darker colour but when I searched online I saw a lot of people saying that I had to buy super caustic industrial strength 30% ammonia. I looked and it was hard to find, a lot of places wouldn't sell it to a consumer, it required hazardous material transport. It was going to be very expensive for me to get any.
So I took a chance and tried it out with just a regular $5 bottle of 6% household clear ammonia. To maximize my chance of success I boosted the tannin levels by pre-dyeing them with some very strong black tea. I used a cooler and a glass dish and fumed them for about 40 hours total. It worked fantastically. Almost darker than I was going for.
Picture 1: Fumed mugs finished with Tried and True Original
Picture 2: Unfinished mugs before and after tea dyeing
Picture 3: Unfinished mug after fuming
Picture 4: Side-by-side comparison of white oak finished with Tried and True with and without fuming