While growing up in a small town in Virginia I spent a lot of time at my Papa and Granny's trying to figure out how to make a quarter doing something around the house, like cutting the grass or shoveling snow. When I finished my task I would go tell Granny I was done and she would give me a quarter. Then, she would tell me, "Go tell Papa you are done and to give you a quarter, but don't tell him I gave you one already, so then you can make fifty cents." Guess they were Al Capone fans!

One day, Papa wanted me to empty all of his "spit cans" from various places around the house. He chewed tobacco like a lot of folks did back in those days. He would offer me a chew while slicing a plug off of his stash, but I never tried it since cleaning those cans of that brown goo was a disgusting exercise in and of itself, not to mention the smell...yuck!

Fast forward to my college days, while working in an antique restoration shop this tobacco goo made its way back to into my life. I was told by one of the guys who chewed tobacco to chop up these "plugs" very finely and to put them into a large jar with equal amounts of water and ammonia, one quart each and screw on the lid real tight. The next day I strained this into another jar, and had a very dark and smelly liquid. It was so dark that light couldn't make it through. I was told to add small amounts of water until the faintest of light made it through the mix and turned into a color similar to that of holding a bottle of Coke up to the sun.

What a beautiful color it was once it was achieved, and the tobacco "plugs" came in different colors/flavors to boot. The plugs actually smelled really good until one of the guys started spitting out the "goo" which reminded me of my Papa and his spit cans...and that extra quarter!

Use the mix just like any other water-based dye and as always, practice on scraps first.

Alan can be reached directly via email c/o Alan Noel Furniture Refinishing at alannoel@comcast.net .