I'm mounting a squirrel on top of a bird feeder. I made the feeder out of pine. The trouble is the pine looks new. How can i give it that gray weathered look? I've heard lye works well for this...is there any truth to this? If not could you please let me know what is used. Also
if lye is used , where do i get lye?
David,
The best way for both of us to get the right answer is for me to give you one. Then some Einstein sitting back there will, say,"George, that's the dumbest thing you've ever said." Then we'll know. So here goes.
Stress (That means beat hell out of the board with chains, nails, and things) the board. Cut the edges randomly with a saw and then take a sand blaster to the wood to dull the sharp edges. Once this is done, you need to make your own stain.
Now this goes back to where it gets fuzzy with me. I THINK we took muriatic acid and placed steel wool in it for a few days. Then we painted the resulting mess on the new board and it gave it the gray look of weathering. Again, I'm not positive about it, but it was some kind of acid and steel wool and since muriatic is cheap and readily found in any fix-it store, I'm assuming that was it.
just maybe a different approach. Couldn't you use a real feeder? one that's been weathered by time...if you don't have one, maybe you have a neighbor who would gladly trade you for your brand new one. It would really look authentic.
and by the way, Mr. George Roof, I respect the hell out of your posts and wish you a happy birthday.
Wava
thanks for all the help guys! I think I'll go with the "trade the neighbor" idea. Again, thanks to all who responded.
Dave,
Soak it in strong coffee.Ever notice how it stains your coffee cup" It will do the same for wood.You can even dump your old grounds on it when wet.If it gets to dark,just add cream!
Give it a try....I realy works.Just kidding about the cream.
Good luck,
Dave>VanDyke's
David, there's a company in Vermont that has been selling "weathered" wood for a long time and they make it right there at their company. It's pretty simple to make, when you look at real-weathered wood.What has happened is the soft fibers between the annular rings(which are hard) have washed and blown away over the years. You can do the same by running a wire brush on the wood following the grain. This will remove some of the soft fibers.Once this is done and you want to color or stain the boards, apply a liberal coat of medium gray and then rub the high grain with a sponge soaked with dark gray and go over that with a medium brown.This should give you a good-looking weathered board. Good luck...JL
For great weathered gray looking boards, rub the wood generously with a wire brush, (with the grain). Pour a bowl of acetone, add drops of black ink until you get a nice gray looking color. Paint the wood till you get the color you are looking for. Works great!
Tony Malone
For redwood only...the high concentration of tannic acid reacts with the baking soda (Na bicarbonate) , thus speeding up the natural weathering process many times. The wood still must be kept moist...if it's not installed it should be kept in the sun as much as possible.
I heard on a television show, that you could weather wood quite well with a fertilizer. They did't say what kind. Does anyone out there know this one?
Just bury the feeder for a while in some fertilizer or wherever
I just wanted to say thanks to everybody for the responses on this. Great feedback. Very helpful. Any additional methods?