How to Make Distressed wood?

[Lyndon Graham]

I pub;ished a thread last week on how to make "rustic" wood. OK, as a newbie I am learning and refining my.

The texture of the shelves I want, that will lead to a similar coffee table, end tables, etc, look like:

Antique Distress, or
Arizona Distress, or
Light Antique Distress

from the websight below:

http://www.architecturaltraditions.com/doortexture.pl

I am willing to buy a Festool planer due to the various heads, or a scrub planer, or a ???. I got into woodworking to make this kind of stuff, the stuff John Wayne would own.

What tools do I need to do this?
How do I do this?
What is the best wood for a coffee table, etc, that would make a nice looking and rugges "distressed" set of shelves, coffe table, etc?

Thanks

PS - I have only been a member a week and am learning a lot and have saved a lot of $ thanks to your advice.

[Joe Chritz]

Welcome aboard.

The steps for distressing are very simple.

1: Build door
2: Beat said door like a rented mule.

Anything else is a variation of #2.

There are a few decent tutorials out there you can find via google. Take an old chunk of chain, a pad lock, claw hammer, etc. After the stain look at the door and rub any areas with sandpaper that look like it would get 100 years of wear.

Good luck, post pics and ask anything.

Joe

[Pat Germain]

My latest issue of Woodworker's Journal features some furniture built from mesquite. It's rustic, yet beautiful. I think The Duke would approve.

I have mesquite flooring in my house and I really like it. I've seen pictures of mesquite cabinets which were stunning. It's not a look for everyone, but it sounds like it would be perfect for your objectives, Lyndon.

[Lyndon Graham]

My latest issue of Woodworker's Journal features some furniture built from mesquite. It's rustic, yet beautiful. I think The Duke would approve.

I have mesquite flooring in my house and I really like it. I've seen pictures of mesquite cabinets which were stunning. It's not a look for everyone, but it sounds like it would be perfect for your objectives, Lyndon.

I have that issue. That is EXACTLY what I am looking for. Alas, there is no Mesquite up here (Oregon). I know from the article that you can have it shipped, but that seems like a wood best to hand select. Otherwise I could get some real bad peices. Thoughts?

BTW, I am not looking for cabinets, but furniture: coffee tables, end tables, etc.

[David Keller NC]

"I am willing to buy a Festool planer due to the various heads, or a scrub planer, or a ???. I got into woodworking to make this kind of stuff, the stuff John Wayne would own."

I'm not sure John Wayne would've owned anything like the stuff on the website you referenced, though I'm sure the studio set designers on his movies must've patronized businesses that sold similar things.

You don't need, nor should you buy, a multi-head molding planer for doing work like this, because "Distressed" or "Antiqued" is a polite word cooked up by interior designers for "Damaged". In general, you're looking to replicate the sort of damage that occurs to wood over a hundred years or more.

Doing so convincingly takes a fair amount of talent and practice - it's not one simple, quick technique. In general, you're looking to replicate 3 different kinds of damage - wood oxidation, dirt and grime accumulation, and damage from impacts and wood movement.

In general, wood oxidation means darker colors (with the exception of certain woods like walnut, that lighten over time). You can simulate this with aniline dyes (not pigment stains, by the way - those replicate dirt accumulation). You can also simulate this to a certain degree by direct UV exposure; certain woods like mahogany do this very well, and will rapidly darken upon exposure to a few days of direct sunlight.

For dirt/grime accumulation, you can do this artificially with pigment stains that leave particulate matter in the wood pores, followed by wiping on/wiping off a gel stain, and leaving a higher accumulation in corners, molding crevices, and around hardware.

For actual damage to the wood, there's a great number of ways to accomplish this, though most of them look quite artificial because the damage all occurred at the same time. Some favorite ways of doing this are filling an athletic sock with sharp rocks and whacking the wood with it, dragging a full ring of keys across horizontal surfaces, using a wire brush wheel to "wear down" areas around knobs and pulls, dumping a big bag of coins onto a soft wood table top, etc...

Damage due to wood movement is harder to simulate, though it is possible. The problem with this is that it may also damage the functionality of the piece, so I'd stay away from this area until you're more practiced at it.

Note that all of the above is quite different than using tools to texture the surface of wood - many contemporary makers use carving tools, wire brushes/scorching, etc... to get away from the smooth, regular surfaces that suggest machine manufacture in the modern age. Some of this texturing can get quite involved, taking many, many more hours to accomplish than the actual building of the piece.

[Bryan Berguson]

Just about any wood can be "distressed". A heavy chain will work as good as anything.

Bryan

[Lyndon Graham]

I'm not sure John Wayne would've owned anything like the stuff on the website you referenced, though I'm sure the studio set designers on his movies must've patronized businesses that sold similar things.

You don't need, nor should you buy, a multi-head molding planer for doing work like this, because "Distressed" or "Antiqued" is a polite word cooked up by interior designers for "Damaged". In general, you're looking to replicate the sort of damage that occurs to wood over a hundred years or more.

Doing so convincingly takes a fair amount of talent and practice...

As a side note, my 1st passion is bird hunting. I have trained all of my labs over the years. Four years ago, I transitioned to pointers. I had my first German Shorthaired Pointer Professionally trained. But there was something missing. I decided to train my next pointer myself. I invested in pigeons, a pigeon coup, pigeon launchers, blah, blah, blah. Bottom line is I now have 2 English Pointers that I trained myself and both have won feild trials. The dogs accomplishments are more rewarding if I train them myself than if I have someone else train them.

For wood working, it is the same thing. I am on the short end of a steep steep learning curve. I do not have John Wayne's $$ to buy those great peices of furniture. And if I did, would that not have defeated half of the joy? But since I can't afford a real peice of 150 year old mesquite furniture that survived the Alamo :-), I want to find a compromise.

I heed your advice and welcome more. Thanks

[Thomas Knighton]

The simplest technique I've personally seen is just taking a heavy chain, like Bryan suggested, and smacking the you-know-what out of the piece until it has the level of distress you want.

Also, if you're wanting to paint the piece and have it look antique, use milk paint instead of what you get a Lowe's or Home Depot.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I saw a TV show where some distressing was done. Like other things there's an art/technique to it. The people who were doing the distressing had about six different tools to "inflict" the look. It seems to me that it would be easy to overdo and also to have something that didn't look "old and worn" but "new and damaged".

[David Keller NC]

"For wood working, it is the same thing. I am on the short end of a steep steep learning curve. I do not have John Wayne's $$ to buy those great peices of furniture. And if I did, would that not have defeated half of the joy? But since I can't afford a real peice of 150 year old mesquite furniture that survived the Alamo :-), I want to find a compromise."

Lyndon - I'm not suggesting that you don't need a multi-head molder because you shouldn't make such furniture yourself - it's just that you don't need it for the purpose. The textured look that's on the website you referenced doesn't really have anything to do with "distressed" - it's just textured, and you can easily accomplish the same thing with carving gouges and/or a scrub plane.

Again, put your thoughts to three separate elements in distressed wood - physical damage to the wood (both surface damage and expansion/contraction cracks), oxidation of the wood, and accumulation of dirt and grime in the corners and recesses. To be convincing, the wood needs all three. No disrespect to the other posters, but simply beating the piece with a chain, car keys, rocks in socks, etc... is not enough - the result will simply look like a piece of furniture that's taken an 'xxx -whoopin'. Similarly, adding a gel stain in the corners and recessess of the moldings to simulate the accumulation of dirt and grime without adding surface damage and simulated wear will also look artificial - it takes all three of these categories to really look "real".

There are a lot of articles on the net and in magazines that may help you to achieve what you're looking for. One particular one that comes to mind is Phil Lowe's article of a couple of years ago in FWW - I think the title was "18th Century Finish in a Day", and it addressed the wood oxidation/accumulation of dirt and grime aspects of distressing, though not the wear and surface damage.

One other aspect that might help you to simulate the surface damage aspect - go to some antique stores, or museums where they'll let you get up close to the furniture, and closely examine the tops of tables and dressers, and the lower legs of most furniture forms - you'll see what "real" surface damage from 200+ years of use and moving around has done, and that's what you're trying to simulate.

Finally, I'd suggest that you might want to try out various techniques on some sample boards - it's a fun way to spend time in the shop, and you won't have to worry about making a real mistake on a piece of furniture that you've spent many hours on.

Here are a few things to get you started:

Wear/Oxidation - Try this with a softwood species with strong grain patterns first, such as cypress, yellow pine, douglas fir, etc... Use a propane torch with a heat-spreader to scorch the wood's surface (do this outside, of course!). Follow this with a wire brush, either manually or on an angle grinder. Continue brushing until you've removed most of the charred material - the result should be that the late-wood (the strong grain) remains as a rounded surface projection, with the soft early wood removed. This closely simulates what happens to these woods with 100 years or more of handling and wear.

Accumulation of grime/dirt - Take a section of unfinished molding (could be purchased, or make your own), coat it with a dilute solution of shellac. When this is dry, smear the molding with black shoe polish, then lightly wipe it off. You'll see that the projecting sections of the molding will mostly clean off, while the recesses will retain a lot of the black color. Ideally, you want more accumulation on the surfaces of the molding that faces up, and less on the surfaces that face down. Shoe polish is a cheap way to try this technique out, but for your furniture you'll probably want to do this with gel stain. Once you've the effect you like, you seal the whole thing with shellac, varnish, laquer or polyurethane.

Surface damage - take a relatively soft board like eastern white pine or poplar to try this out. Put the wood in a plastic tub, and drop a couple of handfuls of change onto it from about 2 feet in height. Then drag and bounce a full key ring across the wood. Almost anything else will work as well, such as chains and the aforementioned athletic sock filled with rocks. After this treatment, you have to make the damage marks stand out, so again coat the board with a light coating of shellac, followed by the shoe polish (or gel stain). Give it a heavy coat, then wipe it off. You'll see the marks left by the objects stand out prominently.

This should get you started - I think you'll see why I noted that this takes a good bit of practice and judgement, especially if you compare what you've done in the shop with a real antique. The trick is to get the results to look random (in the case of surface damage) and to follow a logical pattern (in the case of the accumulated dirt and grime, and wear).

[Lyndon Graham]

This should get you started - I think you'll see why I noted that this takes a good bit of practice and judgement, especially if you compare what you've done in the shop with a real antique. The trick is to get the results to look random (in the case of surface damage) and to follow a logical pattern (in the case of the accumulated dirt and grime, and wear).

Yes, I see that. Judgment and an artistic eye.

Thanks