How to age a tree with your own hands?

Surely you noticed how old-wood furniture looks great. Moreover, even the interior items of the budget series. In nature, wood ages under the influence of natural factors. It is rain, wind, temperature changes, the sun and, of course, time. We will tell you how to age a tree artificially - quickly and without depriving the material of useful properties. We present several effective and relevant methods.

Basic Aging Methods

There are several techniques for artificially aging material in this area:

1. Brushing. Soft fibers are removed with a brush , which helps the material gain a characteristic relief, which is emphasized by applying glazing compositions. Suitable for hardwood - spruce, walnut, larch, oak.
2. Patination. This is the processing of dyes with subsequent grinding. Stain or wax can also be used. The method is good for soft breeds (cherry, maple, beech, etc.) with a weak structure.
3. Chemical way. Surface treatment with chemicals that change its color. Only suitable for leaf breeds.
4. Thermal method. Firing with a blowtorch or gas burner. The soot is partially removed with a metal brush, after which it is treated with varnish or stain.

Essential Tools

How to age a tree at home? We will analyze first two types of actions - the mechanical processing of the material and the application of special varnishes, coloring agents. In such a case, we need the following:

• Metal hard brush.
• Circular brush.
• Emery paper ("sandpaper") with coarse and fine grains.
• White Spirit.
• A few tassels.
• The estimate.
• Wood preservative.
• White icing "Belinka".
• Dark icing "Belinka" (replacement - dark "Pinotex").
• Big sponge.

Is everything at hand? Then you can start.

Method number 1: removal of soft fiber + painting

How to age a tree with your own hands? This method tells us to use a stiff brush that removes soft wood fibers, thereby creating a relief that the applied paint will emphasize.

Let's analyze in more detail:

1. Pre-carefully process the wood with sandpaper.
2. The second stage is the use of a metal hand brush. It is possible to replace it with a circular one, if you have a grinder on hand - this will significantly speed up the process. We use only brushes along the fibers in order to remove the most pliable of them.
3. Sawdust from the surface is brushed off with a separate brush already with a soft bristle in any convenient direction. Hands do not do this, so as not to impose a splinter.
4. You will see how the material right before your eyes changes its appearance, acquiring a characteristic "old" relief.
5. How to age a tree further? We emphasize our results by staining with a special composition in two layers. For these purposes, translucent glaze is used. It can be applied both with a brush and a roller. The tree already looks much more attractive!
6. But that's not all. Take a sponge and gently peel off the top layer of glaze. Why are we doing this? In the desire to find a relief giving an ancient spirit.
7. If the resulting color is to your taste, then do not change anything else - apply a transparent varnish to the result.
8. If you want a more refined texture, then cover the surface with another thin layer of white glaze.
9. After a few minutes, remove the freshly applied glaze with a sponge again. And before us is bleached aged wood furniture.
10. When Belinka dries, you can apply another layer of clear glaze on top. As an option - varnish the surface.

This method is ideal for artificially aging beams and other transition structures.

Method number 2: multi-layer painting and old wood relief

As you understood from the name, we will give the antique look to the thing that has come to us through the ages, with the help of multi-layer surface painting.

So let's get started. How to age a tree with your own hands:

1. First of all, the wood is deliberately subjected to various damages: they hit it with a hammer, stamp it with steel rods or screws, warp it with a saw, pierce it with an awl. In general, they create the appearance of an object worn by time itself.
2. The next step is the Pinotex primer. He needs to be given time to dry completely.
3. How to age a tree further? We cover the surface with a continuous dense layer of antiseptic - tinted paint.
4. Let us draw your attention to the fact that “Pinotex” has a denser structure than “Belinka”, so there is a possibility that it may lie unevenly. Therefore, he is assigned the role of the creator of the dense lower layer of the future aged surface.
5. Next is the time of the thinner dark “Belinka” azure, which can be quickly, easily and evenly distributed throughout the tree. The color here is guaranteed uniform.
6. After the first layer of "Belinka" dries, we begin to artificially age it - rub it with a large or small emery cloth, brush it along the fiber with a metal brush. But you need not to overdo it. At this stage, only a touch of antiquity is important.
7. We continue to reveal how to age a tree. Now we apply a layer of already white "Belinka" azure. It is important to do this so that the lower dark is visible through it. Therefore, azure does not have to be applied evenly.
8. As soon as this layer dries, they ruthlessly pass through it with a stiff iron brush in longitudinal movements. You see how a beautiful relief pattern appears. But it is still far from the natural shade of the old tree.
9. To make the tone more gentle, muffled, white azure is mixed with white spirit in a 1: 1 ratio. This mixture covers the surface.

After all the processing steps, we get the noble color of an aged tree - soft, calm, but with an original dark base, obtained thanks to Pinotex. This treatment is more characteristic of furniture, integrated decoration.

Method number 3: brushing, white glaze coating

If you are looking for how to age a tree at home quickly and easily, then this method is definitely suitable! It is enough to just walk along the surface with a stiff brush, and then treat it with white glaze.

After the Belinka layer dries, it should again be scraped off with a metal brush. Move longitudinally along the fiber. What do we get in the end? A whitewashed surface with a slight shade of antiquity that gave us stiff bristles. So that's it aesthetically, easily and simply.

Method number 4: the aging method from the master

Quite an interesting instruction, which we will now analyze together. The texture of an aged tree can be obtained as follows:

1. The first step is to choose the right material. Young wood will not work here - its fine fibers will not give the desired decorative effect. A resinous tree is also undesirable - it is long and hard to process. We need material with a pronounced structure and healthy knots.
2. Treat the tree with a planer. What is important, it’s worth using a hand tool rather than an electric tool - the latter will erase the natural effect.
3. Now we act with a chisel - it makes shapeless sharpening on the edges of the bar, resembling notches of an ax.
4. Next, soft fibers are removed. For this operation, you can use a drill nozzle with a hard nylon pile. But do not use excessive force or pressure on the tool. In order not to reduce the efficiency of the work, you need to take only light pressure.
5. For a stiffer terrain, instead of a nozzle, you can use a hand tool - a metal brush.
6. If you want, add the effect of wormholes - use a blunt nail or core to make holes 1-2 mm deep.
7. Clean the surface of debris and cover it with Pinotex paint-varnish. Such a coating is stable even against weather troubles. As an alternative - "Senezh Aquadecor".
8. After the coating has dried, it must be treated with sandpaper No. 80. This beautifully emphasizes the structurality and bulkiness of the material - the depressions will be dark and the protrusions will be light.
9. The final stage of work is the coating of wood with a protective layer of varnish ..

Method number 5: aging with fire

How to age a tree with your own hands in the style of "Provence"? Use a gas burner!

And here we can distinguish three methods of work:

1. Aging without material processing. In other words, the master simply emphasizes the structure of the tree, burning its surface. Next, the material is processed with fine sandpaper, and then varnished.
2. First, small wood fibers are removed with a metal brush. Further, the burner is already being processed. This method helps to get a beautiful three-dimensional structure, which looks very impressive.
3. The last way is intense burning. How does this happen? Small fibers are burned with a burner, after which the surface is treated with a stiff metal brush.

Method number 6: waxing

The sequence of work here is as follows:

1. The surface of the wood is treated with "sandpaper".
2. To align the color, 2 layers of dye are applied (optional step).
3. Paraffin (ordinary candle) rubbed the area for the alleged aging.
4. Now a layer of paint, but a few tones lighter than the previous one.
5. Remove a layer of wax with a spatula and sand the wood again.
6. It remains to cover the surface with a protective layer of transparent varnish.
   

Method number 7: using stain

Here is how we will act:

1. Wood is coated with a water-based stain.
2. With a soft sponge, the substance is washed off from the middle of the bar - the corners, troughs and edges remain intact.
3. As soon as the layer dries, the next one, but of a different composition, is applied - based on white spirit, naphtha.
4. Leaves overnight until completely dry.
5. Then a primer is used - it fills cracks and crevices.
6. Conclusion - Rub antique wax along the fibers.

To make the surface matte, after all work, wipe the surface with a soft rag.

Method number 8: the use of chemicals

First of all, take care of your safety - a respirator, protective gloves and covered clothing. Work in a well-ventilated area! The work goes like this:

1. Coat the surface with coarse sandpaper, wipe it from debris.
2. Brush alkaline or ammonia.
3. Leave for a few hours. To make the substances evaporate more slowly, cover the bar with a film.
4. After changing the color, the workpiece is wiped with water. Then a solution of vinegar (1 tbsp.spoon to 1 glass of water) if alkali was used. For ammonia, this is not necessary.
5. After drying - brushing, grinding.
6. Conclusion - a protective layer of transparent varnish.

Last Tips

We examined how to age a tree (you also saw photos with the results throughout the article). In conclusion, we present several valuable tips from the masters:

• Old boards are best for work. After processing, they look prettier and more spectacular. Such material can be obtained even for free from friends and neighbors.
• Remember that on different types of wood, the effect of even the same processing method will look different. This must be taken into account if you intend to make one prefabricated structure from materials.
• If the process seems long and troublesome to you, then in the construction store today you can already pick up ready-made artificially aged wood.

That's all we wanted to tell. You can choose any suitable method for artificial aging of the tree. Good luck in job!