FINISHING TECHNIQUE: Aging/Distressing Furniture- Make new wood look old!

[davidjanuszewski]

About the tinted-wax, I use Kiwi shoe polish to tint my paste-wax to the desired shade. I like black KIWI, then oxblood and brown for general usage,
I melt the paste-wax in boiling-water then add the shoe-polish as desired. I like the way the shoe-polish helps the paste-wax dry to a beautiful sheen.

[swilliams]

Thanks Stumpy. Another great Old Timey Workshop presentation.

[stighds]

Briwax and an unventilated room can lead to an interesting experience.
Seriously though a good way to buff wax is to use an old shoe polishing brush, I used to finish old pine furniture for a job back in the 90's and was shown the method by the old guy I was working with.

[Mr.Donahue]

Lye is a base not an acid. The liquid drain cleaner is caustic I.e. basic.

[MorganScott]

Another technique for aging woods, though it works best with hardwoods rather than the pine seen here, is brushing on an iron acetate solution. Iron acetate can be made by dissolving iron in vinegar. Iron acetate reacts with the tannins in woods to darken them, the level of darkness depends on the tannin content of the wood. Something like maple can turn a light grey while oak can sometimes end up jet black. Its a fun process but it can be a little unpredictable so test your solution on a scrap and see if you like the result before putting it on your fine furniture.

[redeyerobotrobot]

i do a wash coat of amber shellac, (1 part shellac to 10-11 parts alcohol) sand lightly, then Minwax golden oak stain thinned about 50% with mineral spirits. Let that dry over night the several thinned coats of amber shellac (1 part shellac to 3 parts alcohol) 0000 steel wool in between coats. the wash coat of shellac prevents the pine from staining splochy.

[joshmann]

thanks for the techniques. one more could be to use a hand plane to get the modern machine planer marks off, and its not like it has to be perfect. Just enough to remove the ripple, and plane blade tracks are fine, its 'character'

[dakwman]

I think a step got left out when did you do the acid wash was it after the caustic wash or after the wax?

[TheBadThad]

Sodium hydroxide is NOT an acid, it's a base.