What is the best way to achieve an open grain finish on a pine board
My wife wants a chest finished with an open grain (not sure if I even have the terminology right). Its pine and she wants it to look aged - sort of like an old weatherboard would appear after years of aging. The idea is to lightly wash it with a white finish (lime?), rubbed off and just leaving a small residue in the surface irregularities. The idea being to make it appear that the chest is an old one that has been painted and most of the old paint has weathered off.
Can anyone tell me how I would achieve that finish from a pine board that has been sanded smooth.
I know it sort of seems I am working backwards trying to make a finished item look unfinished..but that's what she wants
Consider Porters milk paint
As mark david has said, pine is not open grained. In fact, pine and all other conifers do not have pores because, in botanical terms, they do not have vessels making up the wood, only tracheids. It is the vessels in flowering plants that create the pores in the wood as the openings/tubes in vessels are much larger than the openings/tubes in tracheids. OK, botanical lesson over.
I suggest that you ask your wife to describe very carefully what she is looking for before you do anything drastic. I have often found that my understanding of what my wife wants is very limited:rolleyes:.
One suggestion for an aged looking finish could be Porters milk paint (made in Brisbane I believe) with possibly some distressing or just hard rubbed. Australian Wood Review run a video series and I remember seeing one that was filmed in Richard Vaughan's workshop "shedudio" here in Brisbane. An American woodworker was demonstrating her use of milk paint with different distressing techniques to produce artistic effects. Perhaps one of those effects may be what your wife wants and you could show her the video to check:;. I saw the objects themselves at Richard's and some of the rubbed back ones had a lovely glow to them. That look all over a piece of furniture would be great. She had also used the burning and wire-brush techniques but they create quite three-dimensional surfaces. Great for her sculptures but maybe not for furniture.
I have some milk paint to put on a piece of depression furniture that has lost most of its original milk paint, but haven't used it yet, so this suggestion does not have experience of use behind it, I'm afraid.
Good luck with it.
David
Edit for completeness
That is early-wood/late-wood figure, not grain
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gerryattrick
Maybe I can't use pine for what she wants given the issue of (lack of) grain.:- It is for a chunky rustic dining table and it has been a mission getting her to get the detailed requirements as it seems to me to be a mix of styles. However given that this is my excuse for a decent router etc I am not about to kill the goose that I hope will continue to lay golden eggs:D
This is the texture I am talking about and she wants to whitewash it and then remove most of the colour and just leave small residues in the grain. I think the picture is of cedar but that would be far too soft having experience of a table made from an old cedar door. I planned on using pine because this is my first attempt at anything this large and it is cheap to allow for mistakes.
Maybe I need to rethink the type of timber or make the table in Pine and if it works make another in a more suitable timber. Or have a bit more confidence in the finished product being OK:rolleyes:
We may be talking at cross purposes here. If you are describing the figure/pattern in the photo you posted as "open grain" it is not what I and other woodworkers call grain. Conifers (incl. pines) have two different densities of wood in their timber. The tree grows strongly in warmer, wetter, good growing conditions and lays down soft wood called "early-wood" then, as the growing season comes to a close the growth slows down and much harder, denser wood is laid down by the tree. Naturally, it is called late-wood. There are some competing terms out there but they are for the same phenomenon. if you choose a pine with strong figure from early wood/late wood patterning you can certainly show and exaggerate the figure with a pigment based finish rubbed back afterwards as the early wood and late wood absorb the finish differently and respond differently to being abraded.
As many others here have counselled - just get some scrap pieces of the timber of your choice and have a practice. I hope that you have success to help with your toy collection! BTW I have seen some tables made out of recycled Oregon timber beams - it would probably respond well to the treatment.
Regards
David