Changing Wood Color

[Ga_Boy]

Hello all,

I have a customer who wants me to treat some wood that I planned for him so that it looks like it is rough sawn barn wood.  The material has already been planned to 1/2" and is kiln dried Oak.

The customer is one of my frist under my company name of AMS Kiln Dried Lumber.  

Any suggestions?



Mark

[Jim_Rogers]

Mark:
Years ago we needed to make some brand new rope look old and gray. We wanted it to still be strong so we just mixed up some different colored stains until we got the gray we wanted and then stained the rope that gray color.
That worked great for us.
I'm sure you can find some stains to mix and create a weathered gray look. Try it on some samples first and get the customer to ok the color.
Then if he likes the color, you could then distress the wood. That can be done many ways. Drag some old tire chains over the wood and that will add a lot of dings and scraps.
It's a shame you've already planed it.
Maybe you can wet it some and raise the grain a little.
You'll have to try a few "hair brained ideas" and see what works.
But always get them to ok it before you do the whole batch.
Then if they say they're not happy, you can put it back to them that they ok'ed the process or color.
Good luck.
Jim Rogers

[Timber_Framer]

Jim's idea about wtting the wood is a good one. We floated some down a fast running creek one time nad it raised the grain as well as putting quite a few dents and dings from the rocks. Of course it was a lot of work, and if you don't have tire chains handy a motorcycle chain works wonders as well.

[Brad_S.]

I once read you can stain oak by soaking rusty nails in vinegar and wiping/spraying that on. Never tried it but it makes sense. :-/

Makita makes a wire brush for raising grain on wood. You can see one in the Baileys catalog. Rather expensive though.    Maybe you can put together something up like it.

[Tom]

Brad, you can stain oak that way but it turns black, not the wathered silvery/gray look that it sounds like the customer is after.  

Rusty water or iron in vinegar will combine with the tannin and create iron tannate and that is the black stain on the wood.  That is also what leaves the black marks on the cant or boards where it was resting on the bunks of the sawmill.  Stainless Steel on the bunks eliminates this.  It is usually not deep enough that it can't be planed off but you should be carefull carrying oak or some other harddwoods around on a steel bed of a truck.It will turn black.

[Brad_S.]

Tom,

I was wondering if a very diluted mixture would work. Don't really care one way or the other myself, but a gallon of vinager is cheaper than a gallon of stain! :D

Actually, I believe I read that as a formula for coloring pine grey. I tried it, but I couldn't get the depth of grey I needed in just one coat. Wanted to "pre-age" my barn, but went with stain in the end.

[UNCLEBUCK]

Thanks for that info Tom , Goodluck Ga_Boy   :P

[Paschale]

That's interesting there, Tom, what you say about the vinegar and rusty nails.  I was at a woodworking show recently, and one of the presenters (Marc Adams) had steel wool in vinegar, and dipped Oak in it.  He called it "ebonizing" wood, and said the chemical reaction will just continue until it turns a really dark black.  You can apparently stop the reaction with lemon juice.  There must be something in the chemical reaction that puts a stop to things by adding an acid of some sort, though I've always thought of vinegar as acidic, so I'm not sure exactly what's going on chemically with the lemon juice.  He did say that using lemon juice could also reverse the process in some ways.  I don't think it would work very well for the application Mark was looking for, but I plan to make some modern picture frames with some ash that is ebonized by that method.

[beenthere]

Oak will "ebonize" with the steel wool because it reacts with the tannins in oak, as Tom pointed out. Not sure that you will get the same "ebonizing" results using ash, as I don't think the ash has the tannins.
Let us know how it comes out if you try it.

[Paschale]

Hmm...I wonder if something else is going on besides a reaction to the tannins.  This guy Marc Adams mentioned to, "be careful you don't get it on your skin," since he said pretty much anything that mixture got on turned black.  Any thoughts?