I have a pile of bones that was formerly a chair. My wife found it on a street corner and thought I needed something to do other than watch Breaking Bad reruns. It’s a mystery to me how this chair was standing upright, considering its condition. When I started removing all the screws, brackets and nails that had been added over the years, it literally collapsed.
Anyway, the wood is very weathered. There are at least three pieces that need to be replaced, including both front legs. The wood is white oak, and the contrast between the new and old wood is going to be startling. My wife doesn’t want me to use paint or a dark stain, as it would cover the look of the old grain, so that means I will need to artificially age the new wood.
I’m thinking maybe ammonia fuming? I’m open to suggestions and techniques.
I hear about acidic stuff like vinegar, coffee, and tea. There are commercial agers though, I’d probably look into them for a one time thing, but I do have fun experimenting with stuff like that.
You may not want to do it this way, but with a similar circumstance I used oxalic acid to bleach the older wood and then used teak oil on both to bring out the color.
A good stain should also enhance the grain, not hide it, but you need to get the wood closer to matching first, and don’t oversand or it won’t pick up the stain well.
Hadn’t thought about oxalic acid; I’ll look into it. I’ve also considered baking soda to age the new wood, but it’s very light in color, hence my leaning toward ammonia.
Hydrogen peroxide will bleach wood quite effectively.
Dont forget to replicate some of the physical wear and tear. This can be done by bashing with a handful of chain, burnishing with a smooth metal rod, abrading with a rock or coarse sandpaper.
If you soak the wood, the grain will raise and go bumpy, then you can sand this partially back or burnish it smoother with a piece of harder wood. This can be useful in replicating the surface texture if your chair has ever been left out in the rain.
It’s not that easy to find H2O2 in the strength required to bleach wood here in the US. The commercial wood bleach preparations that use are near impossible to find now because of shipping restrictions. It can be found at hairdresser supplies for bleaching hair and some industrial outlets. You can order it from several sources but then you get on a watchlist. I’d say oxalic acid is better to work with, it comes in dry form that you can mix to your required strength, and you can control the bleaching action better. You can neutralize it with baking soda to stop the bleaching. Of course, whatever you use wear eye protection.
I decided to go with the least nuclear option first and gave one of the pieces a wipe with a baking soda mixture, and the color looks fairly close. I think if I take a few haphazard swipes at it with some coarse sandpaper, it will be a close enough match, then finish the piece with either Ozmo or Danish Oil. I’ve got a lot of work before that happens though.
Walnuts are the answer. Get some shelled walnuts (or shell themselves) and rub the walnut meat on the new pieces. It’ll stain them quickly enough that it’s not a terrible chore, but slowly enough that you can easily stop when it matches. This also works wonders for hiding dents and scratches in wood.
Think of a fence that’s aged for a few years and has that “old” look to it. This chair has obviously sat out in the elements over the years. While the wood isn’t excessively rotted (other than in a couple of spots), it’s pretty weather-beaten. If I have time, I’ll take a shot of the old wood next to the replacement wood.
Hey, Chronos, that’s some interesting info. I’ve used walnut oil as a cutting board finish, which works very well and is non-reactive, so I can see how that would likely work.
The tedious part is going to be pinning all the tenons and other glue joints, as the wood has dried to the point where the joints are a bit loose. I don’t trust wood glue to be the total answer, and really don’t feel like using epoxy on it, although it may come to that.
You can try out Chair Loc or similar products to swell the joints, and/or tighten the joints with shims or wedges like a trenail. On chairs glue is not ideal, it will eventually dry and work loose under stress. Epoxy will just cause the wood to crack somewhere else. The Shakers were masters of glueless construction, choosing woods that will shrink at different rates when they dry to insure a tight joint.
Funny you should say that. One of my thoughts was to fix it up, then leave it outside until next summer. Some rain, snow, more rain, sun beating down on it, more rain etc, might be all it needs to blend in the new wood. Especially if you don’t finish/protect it first.
Another option is to sand and refinish it all. The whole chair will look newer, but it’ll all match and all age (again) at the same rate.
I’m not sure how well this would work for furniture, but I’ve used this stuff before on a deck where I replaced some boards and wanted the new stuff to match the old: LifeTime® Wood Treatment Non-Toxic Wood Stain
I have a feeling that this chair is quite old. The discoloration goes pretty deep, and the types of screws and nails (and the tarnish on them) used to try to reinforce the joints point to that as well. I’ve scraped some pieces and taken a plane to a couple of others. While there is some relief to the aged look, it’s minor. I think I’d have to seriously reduce the dimension of the pieces to get to ‘clean’ wood.
Just because no one has mentioned it… and old trick for aging or darkening wood is to use an iron oxide solution. After a 30 mins or so it reacts with the lignin in the wood to grey it much the same way weathering does. You can actually ‘ebonize’ oak like this turning it a dark bluish grey. I have used this to match to cut ends of a rough fir timber mantle to the aged faces.
Fill a small jar with vinegar, drop a small finger tip size piece of steel wool in it and leave it over night. Pour liquid off from remaining steel residue and take a small amount and dilute it to about a 10% with water. Paint a little on a sample of your wood and wait 30 min. You should see a significant colour change. It will take some further dilution and trial and error to get a reasonable match. It will darken further overnight but you will have a pretty good idea after half an hour.
