Wood is a good material: if you want, build it, if you want, use it for finishing. You can also make furniture. One of the important positive properties of wood is the mass of options for finishing its surface. Each method gives its own unique effect, and it can be chosen to suit any image and style. This material is durable: furniture made of natural wood, with proper care, lasts for many years – tens, or even hundreds. And wood does not lose its beauty over time – on the contrary, like cognac, it can become even more interesting. Time does not spoil wooden furniture. The charm of a time-worn wooden surface is so strong that there is a whole direction in furniture production – artificial aging. In previous publications on this topic (Renewing old furniture. Aging with painting and Renewing old furniture. The charm of cracks) we talked about how you can age furniture using varnishes and paints. In this material we will look at how to give the surface of wood a more respectable appearance using mechanical methods. Brushing Wood is heterogeneous in its composition: annual rings are visible on the cut tree. The number of circles determines age, and their width depends on many reasons: breed, nutritional conditions, weather, location (in the sun or in the shade). The annual rings are wider in young trees – they grow more actively. The size of the rings is also influenced by whether a particular tree grew from a seed (narrower ones) or root shoots. Tree rings The light and wider section of the ring is the growth in the first half of the active growing season (spring and early summer), the thin and dark section is what has grown in the second half of summer and autumn. All together represents an increase of one year. At the beginning of summer, looser conductive tissue is formed. From the second half, hard cells grow that can withstand mechanical loads – they give the tree stability. The pattern of growth rings is also visible on the longitudinal cut of the tree. Over time, wood deteriorates. Especially if the board or wood product is outdoors – exposed to the sun, rain, frost and wind. Light soft areas are destroyed faster, so over time the surface of the wood becomes uneven and ribbed. Old board In order to achieve such a result, it is not necessary to wait many years, keeping the tree exposed to the sun and wind. You can age wood by brushing. The process involves mechanical removal of the softer fibers. To do this, use hard brushes (in English brush – brush). Depending on the required degree of aging, tools of varying hardness are used: metal, nylon, sisal. A combination of them is possible: for deeper and rougher processing, a metal brush is used, and nylon and then sisal are used to treat the surface to remove burrs. Brushes for brushing In addition to attachments for a drill or angle grinder (angle grinder, “grinder”), it is worth acquiring hand tools – abrasive sandpaper of different grain sizes, a manual cord brush. It is also convenient to use abrasive sponges: the flexible surface allows you to remove splinters from the recesses. Regardless of the choice, during work the direction of movement should be taken into account: it should be along the wood fibers. Therefore, brush attachments for power tools need to be flat, and not cup-shaped. Practice on a sample before starting the aging process. With the help of various brushes, you can imitate not only atmospheric aging (exposure to wind, sun), but also the effect of a piece of wood rolled in water – these can be found on the banks of a river or sea. In this case, the wood is processed more deeply, and “traces of time” can be not only along the grain. An example of such aging is the box in the photo below. Aging of wood. Photo from the site o-drevesine.ru In addition to the mechanical method (with brushes), wood is textured using chemicals or sandblasting. The principle is the same: the softer parts are removed. The chemical method uses acids and alkalis that can corrode organic matter, for example, sulfuric or nitric acid. You can experiment with aggressive household chemicals designed to remove heavy dirt. Chemical treatment is used as an independent option or as an initial step before mechanical cleaning with brushes. A combination of old boards and a modern sofa model. Photo from the site mebelica.ru When sandblasting, abrasive particles knock out softer layers. Sandblasting can be found in car repair shops – this type of equipment is used to remove rust. Using different brushing methods allows you to achieve different effects. When treated with metal brushes, the relief of wood fibers will be deeper and more obvious; after chemical etching and sandblasting, it will be smoothed out. The treated wood is covered with stains and varnish. After obtaining the required texture, the wood is treated with stains, waxes, glaze coatings, and varnishes. Coloring compounds (stains) stain soft areas more than hard ones. Lazuli (glazes) additionally emphasize the relief, accumulating in the recesses. FiringFiring of wood is most often considered the first stage of brushing – just like with chemical etching, the softer areas are destroyed (burnt) first. The beauty of simplicity. Photo from wickdpleasures.tumblr.com The wooden surface is burned with a blowtorch or gas torch, and then the charred parts are cleaned off, washed generously with water and coated with oil. The degree of firing and subsequent brushing depends on preference. Wood that has gone through fire and water does not require additional tinting – the surface of the board takes on a noble dark shade. But if desired, charred wood can be additionally coated with colored stains. The combination of red and charcoal black looks especially impressive. A house lined with burnt boards. Photo from skyhousedesigncentre.com Firing can be an independent type of finishing. Now this direction is gaining popularity and is considered the Japanese technique Shou Sugi Ban (Yakisugi), although this method of woodworking is known in many countries. In Russia, burning wood was called smoking. Fire-treated wood becomes less flammable and is practically not susceptible to rotting and damage by insects. Therefore, such boards are used for cladding facades and building fences. There is no need to regularly paint such a fence or facade – the burnt board does not change its qualities for a hundred years. Fence made of burnt wood. Photo from oilobit.com Naturally, the designers could not ignore such material. They began to use fire-treated objects in their interiors, and used boards using the Shou Sugi Ban technique of varying degrees of charring to decorate walls and ceilings. Oil coated surfaces do not get dirty. Wall cladding using the Shou Sugi Ban technique. Photo from the website urbantimber.ca Then the designers went even further and learned to decorate pieces of furniture by firing. Things that look like they were rescued from a fire may not be to everyone’s taste, but they look very stylish. See for yourself. Try texturing familiar wood – perhaps you will discover a new material. Other publications about the peculiarities of working with wood that you may find useful:
- 12 unusual ways to decorate wood
- What you need to know about slats, boards, lining and saw cuts in the interior to be on trend
- How to clean wood from old paint and varnish
