Distressing wood

[pigpen60]

May not be the place but... How do you distress wood? Will be stained not painted. I have a few things I want to make and I have now idea how to make the wood look appropriate for the project. Thank you for your time.

[JHCC]

Need more information. What kind of wood? What's the project? What do you mean by "appropriate"?

[pigpen60]

Was wanting to make/build a coat rack using RR spikes and figured it wouldnt look right to have a used spike and fresh looking wood. I hadnt give it much thought on wood species, what would you recommend?

[JHCC]

Freestanding, or wall mounted?

[pigpen60]

Wall mount.

 

[JHCC]

Your simplest option would be to use an already-weathered board, like a piece of barn siding or pallet wood. The downside to that is that you really can only drill into it to mount your hooks: any cutting to length or the like will reveal the unweathered wood underneath.

One good option might be to make the wooden elements out of a wood with strong grain patterns like oak or yellow pine, and then lightly char the surface with a blowtorch. Brush off the charred layer with a wire brush, and seal with a coat of boiled linseed oil followed by a coat of wax, both well rubbed in. (You can just go with the wax by itself, if you don't want any gloss to the finish.) This gives a nice rustic look without too much trouble. Just practice on some scraps first, so that you don't go overboard and burn up your piece.

If you google "charred wood finish", you'll find some good examples.

[pigpen60]

Will do thank you.

[JHCC]

Post pictures when you're done!

[turbo7]

Destressing would be sanding mate, if your looking for a stressed look take to it with the edge of your hammer and then score with a burner, sand it then stain, the hollows will stay black.

[John in Oly, WA]

Other distressing methods would be to bundle a bunch of nails - 16 penny or so - together, points all facing the same direction and stab the wood with the pointy end of the bundle. Whip the wood with a short piece of chain. Put some nuts and bolts in a sock and club it with that.

[aessinus]

Also abrasive blast or a good strong pressure washer will make the grain "pop".  Some oaks will gray up nicely afterward by painting with ammonia cleaner to give the aged look.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

If this is something that you want to do for awhile, cuts some shapes that you want to use, and just toss them outside somewhere where they will be exposed to the elements. Before the county rolled through my place I had piles of pine planks that had a nice gray patina, and some were starting to get the wavy grain surface. They had been out for around 5 years. We don't get much rain-around 4" total for a year, but we get 300+ days of sun, and 3 months of blistering sun in the summer. You will get some splitting, but that just works with many pieces you make from them.  I gave away a lot of it so it would not hit the dumpsters.

[pigpen60]

Wow! Lots of info, will do the pics. Thank you!

[Wroughton]

pigpen,

I chase the grain with an appropriate wire wheel for the wood hardness (soft woods do best with a fine wheel and hardwoods I get after with a knotted wheel)  or burn with a weed burner or both. Grinding wheels and flap discs work well for hogging off material and shaping with the grain. Toast with weed burner until you get some charring and then knock that back with steel wool then finish with your favorite oil.

Look up steel wool and vinegar for staining/aging wood also. 

[Kozzy]

Distressing can mean a pretty wide range of things to different people.  I've seen some situations where people swing heavy chains at a piece of wood to "distress" the surface---or bang it with a hammer and whack it with some chisels.  That fake distressing tends to look fake to me but is popular with some of the "trendy" markets.

IMHO, the first real step is to think about how the piece of wood would have naturally aged and worn with use.  You'll get MUCH more realistic "wear & tear" of you emulate what would have really happened to it over a hundred years rather than just going at the wood randomly.  There are a lot of methods to this madness from very light sanding to going at it with a blow torch--it depends on the wood used and just how distressed you are seeking.  

Then there are some other tricks to toss in the mix--for instance, a bolt hole that's been there for 100 years will have black staining surrounding it from the iron bolt and you can fake that pretty good with dyes..even magic marker if you do it carefully.  

Anyway...several types of tricks but the point of this ramble is the first step is to consider what the NATURAL wear/use patterns would have been and use that as a clue to the process.  It'll look a lot better if you do--less like it came out of some Chinese factory with fake distressing.

[Frosty]

Thanks for asking this question Pigpen it's a great thread! 

On the same note as flailing wood with chains and such a person could try putting it in a tumbler if it fit. I think I'll try the weed whacker and see.

Last time I distressed wood it tried to kill me and almost succeeded. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

This is all most distressing. 

[ThomasPowers]

Frosty I always think you as being an avatar of Durkon Thundershield, Dwarven Cleric from "Order of the Stick" who has a terror that the trees are plotting against him!

[the iron dwarf]

you can try shot / sand blasting to raise the grain

[Kozzy]

28 minutes ago, the iron dwarf said:

you can try shot / sand blasting to raise the grain

Heh..I do have a table top I made from an old workbench I yanked from the barn which has a shotgun blast into it   I guess the possibilities are endless.  

[Marc1]

Hardwood, (real hardwood) comes up nice by sandblasting. Softwood like Douglas Fir or Spruce, that has distinctive hard and soft rings, comes up best by burning with a blowtorch. You burn until you start seeing patches of shiny charcoal, then brush off the coal until the wood shows up again. Radiata pine or poplar is the softest but still can be aged in this way. The amount of black you leave is up to you, you can brush it all off or leave a bit here and there. 

What you are doing in this way is take away the softer wood and leave the harder wood, giving the appearance of driftwood aged naturally. Test on an offcut of the same species of wood recommended. 

[pigpen60]

I used to work with a fella that worked for a defense contractor and he would go on and on about the ties at the sandblast area, he like the way the grain looked after years of blasting. My thing is I dont want to build a coat rack with used spikes and have new looking wood. I have my forge finished for right now so I'm going to work on the rack. Oh and a knob fell off  my dresser drawer so Im going to make another pair of spike knobs using the heads of the spikes. Wife is trying to understand the knobs "disappearing". I thing the cat is involved.

[ThomasPowers]

Have you looked at the grain polished wood that Old Globe is selling?

https://www.oldglobewood.com/grain-polished-reclaimed-wood.html

I am not associated with these people and post this only as an idea starter...

[Mark Ling]

I wonder what a stiff block brush would do.

                                                                                                                  Littleblacksmith

[Frosty]

10 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Frosty I always think you as being an avatar of Durkon Thundershield, Dwarven Cleric from "Order of the Stick" who has a terror that the trees are plotting against him!

Never heard of "Order of the Stick" so I Googled it, sounds entertaining I'll check it out. So, Durkon arbors the suspicion he's being stalked eh.

Frosty The Lucky.