Chemistry Buff Makes a Transparent Piece Wood

Canadian chemistry buff NileRed (previously) decided to revisit an old project from 2018 in which he tried to turn a piece wood transparent. The results weren’t quite as successful as he’d hoped. With renewed hope, he began the process over again.

A few years ago I tried making transparent wood and it kind of worked. The pieces that I made were somewhat okay, but I was never really happy with the result.

This time he carefully followed the formula from a scientific paper that was published in 2016 and found that his results were even better than he could ever imagine.

The final result was honestly way better than I ever thought it would be and I was really happy with how it turned out. It technically still isn’t perfect but I think that’s kind of a good thing. I think all the slight imperfections on the surface actually make it look more like a piece of wood and less just like a slightly hazy piece of plastic.

Here’s the first attempt.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

Recent Posts