A friend of mine asked if I could make her a simple headboard for her bed. I’m pretty good with mechanical construction of wood furniture but not that good with finishes and wood selection. She wants a simple slat headboard with rough sawn wood and a rustic finish. Something like this:
I’m not sure where to get wood like this or the best way to get a rustic finish. I’d really appreciate any pointers or ideas.
the most authentic way would be to find a barnwood dealer and purchase weathered old wood. Probably an expensive option but it looks cool.
Or you can age and texture new wood. For aging you can go way down the google rabbit hole, but oak and various concentrations of a steel wool + vinegar solution might get you there. I would choose several different boards to get as much variance as possible. Or maybe mix in some other woods.
For the texture, you could try running it slowly against the bandsaw, or you could sort of skip plane it with a chainsaw. But pretty tough to mimic the old sawmill look exactly.
Or consider angle grinder with a “chainsaw” disc:
Even a regular blade with teeth might get you where you want to go if you use it to sort of “touch down” and move forward 1/2 inch or so and repeat:
I’ve never done anything like this, but if I did I would approach this all with a lot of respect for the tool and remind myself how much I like all my body parts and pieces and bits all attached and everything.
I’ve used these with an angle grinder for similar results. Helps if you mark out the pattern roughly with a carpenters pencil and something like a paint or finish can for a consistent pattern.
That’s actually done taking a small round but kinda flat curved piece of metal and putting it against the board a hitting it with a hammer move a couple inches and repeat, because a rough sawn board would take finish horribly I’d be inconsistent unless sanded first which would ruin the sawn look, so you’re gonna have to be a little macgyver here but I’d your able to fine a round pics of metal the same size and shape a saw blade with no teeth so they don’t leave marks you could take that hold it at like a 10 or 5 degree or some really shallow angle then put something under one side of it and swing away you should be able to achieve the same look while having a good looking end result that’ll be stained evenly( cause you do the banging after the staining)
I found someone at my marina who just happened to have an old barn where he had reclaimed some 9’ x 12” x 7/8” rough sawn boards. He offered to give me 8 of them. Now i just need to decide how i will finish them. I’ll probably start by cleaning them with a wire brush and light sanding. https://youtu.be/hr8HAsM8WUM
Then try a few stains and varnish; maybe one try with varnish alone. Steel wool and vinegar might be fun to try. I really want a rustic look and i’m not sure how to make stain intentionally uneven. I’ve always tried to get stain on evenly so this will be a new experience.
Nice score! Id suggest starting out very simply and do some testing. Maybe research shellac cut with lacquer thinner. Easy to wipe on, dries fast, etc. The beauty of old wood is that the elements have already done the hard work of making it unique, so no need to do a lot of staining, etc. And a very simple finish will rehydrate the wood and make it look quite a bit different than it does now. Good luck!
This makes iron acetate. Called “ebonizing” in woodworking and “vinegaroon” in Leatherworking. Iron acetate reacts with tannins in the wood (or leather) and turns it black. Wood with a lot of tannin (like oak) will darken significantly. Others (like pine and cedar) won’t react much at all.
You can boost the tannins in the wood (or leather) by painting on a strong black tea first: the tannins from the tea leaves will boost the available tannins to convert.
The nice thing about this approach is that it isn’t a dye - it’s a chemical conversion of the tannins - so it won’t rub off.
I used this approach to darken the oak frame of this 3D laser map I made a few years back:
Similarly, this leather was blackened with vinegaroon (the same stuff):
No other dye or stain was used in either case.
Here are some notes I took on Ebonizing wood. From this article in Popular woodworking. How To Ebonize Wood | Popular Woodworking Magazine I think I may have thrown in info from other sources as well. I apologize in advance I am a horrible typist. I have only gone so far as to “dissolve” the steel wool in vinegar. You definitely need to rinse the steel wall thoroughly. My first attempt with Heinz vinegar and lazily washed steel wool is still just sitting there about 6 months later. With the steel wool floating in the vinegar. For my second attempt I bought 30% vinegar from Amazon and thoroughly washed the steel wools. The steel wool broke down in a matter of days. The second time I also installed an air lock in the lid of the jar not sure if that helped with dissolving or not.
From my reading you do not specifically need the quebracho extract for the tea but I want to try it eventually time permitting to see what kind of different coloring it creates.
Ebonizing Wood
Uses iron to stain wood black by using a reaction between iron oxide and tannins in wood to create a black color in the fibers of the wood, makes the color durable and light fast
Problem it relies on tannins in wood which are variable between species and wood within species.
Commonly ebonized wood:
Oak
Walnut very reliable
Randy Cochran used a process to saturate wood with chemical tannic acid then apply rich iron solution made from soaking rusty nails in water for weeks. Made deep black w/bluish tint
Use bark tea made from quebracho to increase tannic acid then once wood had dried add solution of vinegar and iron, caused a chalky black, adding a last coat of bark tea eliminated chalk and made a deep coal black
Making solution
Iron solution
Wash 0000steel wool in soap and water put in plastic quart bottle of Heinz vinegar, done when steel wool is dissolved, can take a week, sieve the solution through coffee filter into quart jar, can be light gray or red color, should be clear not cloudy, keeps for months in plastic jug, put 1/32 hole in lid, make one week in advance
Bark tea
Drop heaping tablespoon of bark powder into a pint of hot water and stir well,
The Process
If you find a blank spot sand o with #320 grit and start stain process at step one, do not restain whole piece
Problems and solutions
If when you wipe of after cleaning water the color goes away
sand with #180 then #220 grit and start process over, the fibers have been compressed so in wrong" surface not in the wood Prevent this by only applying stain with a brush or paper towel lightly, keep finger pressure off wood
You notice a texture change on the surface this is caused by build up of solids the tea is too strong or poorly mixed and and start over oak especially white oak can be hard to stain Soap can help with this you can also sand off the first application once dry and reapply stain
use spray bottle to apply stain to rags to avoid cross contamination never dip rag into main container
Use new paper towel for every application of tea and vinegar
what you need
Van Dyke’s Taxidermy, 800-843-3320 or vandykestaxidermy.com
My understanding is that the acetic acid reacts with iron oxide - not iron - to make iron acetate. Thus, letting the cleaned, wet steel wool rust in the air first, then adding it to the vinegar is the key.
Washing the steel wool removes oil left from the manufacturing process and allows it to rust faster.
I’ve made it a few times to use with Leatherworking, and I just used rusty nails and vinegar. Rusty steel wool would provide a lot more surface area for the vinegar to attack.
Were I to make it again (I still have close to a gallon), I’d try:
You want to ensure a surplus of iron oxide so ALL of the vinegar is converted. Otherwise, remaining vinegar might attack and corrode fasteners or other metal parts of your project.
Strain through paper towels or coffee filters to remove sediment and cruddy foam and store in a sealed bottle. Will keep indefinitely.
A clean, empty peanut butter jar works pretty well for dipping small parts directly into the solution.
One Leatherworker I know of keeps a 50 gallon(!) drum of the stuff and just tosses completed projects (typically holsters for western movies) in to soak. Only takes 20-30 seconds to convert the tannins - almost instantly once wet.
