Replies

1. 
   byhammerandhand | Aug 11, 2007 03:03am | #1

   Take a good look at what's there and just try to replicate it. Distressing comes in all forms -- dents, gouges, chips, worm holes, tunnels, screw threads, tool marks, etc. A ring of keys makes a good distressing tool, as do the tools used by the factories that look like medieval torture implements (chains, hammers, and so on). It's easier to add a little more than to take a few off, so go slow and check often.

   For wear through, I finish the underneath as for a stained & clear finish, then rub off with a scotch-brite pad. Adding a little wax between layers of finish will also allow flake off. Some people even use a propane torch. Thankfully, I've never had to replicate that finish.

   A glaze also helps accentuate the distressing.

   Story: I got a call from a client who thought "those boys in here Saturday" played connect-the-dot on the worm hole distressing. That is exactly what I looked like. I was sitting there trying to figure out just exactly the best way to repair this on the top of the bar table. I step back and see exactly the same pattern on the apron board, and the next apron board, and all of them. Also on each leg of the matching barstools was exactly one occurrence of the same pattern. I told them that it had come from the factory that way, as I could not see the boys doing this same thing on the back legs of all the barstools.

   
   

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   Edited 8/10/2007 8:09 pm ET by byhammerandhand

2. 
   forestgirl | Aug 12, 2007 01:52am | #2

   The "rubbed through" part might take more finesse than the rest.  The trick is to get a base for the black that looks right when the black is rubbed away.  Also, look at the older piece and see which areas of the piece are worn the most.  For instance, on chairs, it's usually the rungs where sitter place their feet, the ends of the arms, and such.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 
   
3. 
   9619 | Aug 13, 2007 05:21am | #3

   Jim,
   I vaguely remember a book called The Gentle Art of Faking Fine Furniture. I believe the author said that a technique that he was successful with was to take the piece of furniture and put it in the mud at the edge of a creek behind his house for a year or so.

   He also recommended drilling a hole in it at a strange place, so that in 100 years, people would argue about how the piece was used, and why the hole was there.

   There may also have been a chapter on putting the real old looking patina on new jewelry. He recommended taking your newly made ring and getting it into a goose's stomach. He sais that this is rough work, as the goose will not go along with the gag. After three days, you have to sacrifice the goose, but the patina on the ring, from the goose's gastric acid, will be quite good.

   Hope this helps. If you don't have a creek in your back yard, just ignore this message.

   Have fun,
   Mel

   Measure your output in smiles per board foot. 

1. 
   joinerswork | Aug 14, 2007 02:30am | #4

   Mel,

   Worst part is following the goose for 3 days, watching it's... trail.  But if you sacrifice the bird at just the right time, you get not only patina but pate`.  (Is that supposed to be an accent egue or sidee? Pretty sure it isn't an umlaut.)

   Ray

   PS Grotz was an entertaining writer. Didn't he write the gentle art??  Ever read "the furniture doctor"?

   Edited 8/13/2007 7:32 pm ET by joinerswork

1. 
   9619 | Aug 14, 2007 02:52am | #5

   Ray,
   So you know about umlauts and accents agieu (or however you spell that). I am beginning to believe that you are as well read as Thomas Jefferson. I didn't know they had that many books in your part of Virginia.Speaking of books. Yea, I cut my eye teeth on Grotz. We used it in grammar school instead of the McGuffie reader. But Grotz didn't write The Gentle Art of Faking Furniture. That was Herbert Cescinsky. Great book. If you'd like, I could mail it to you. It's a good read. It is a Dover publication. You can read my book if you promise to tell my how you find so many ways to use biscuits in your Chippendale furniture. Have you thought of using the Kreg system?Charles Neil did give a talk to the Washington Woodworker's Guild. He told us about the use of Bondo in antique restoration. It gave me the idea for a new TV show, "Pimp my antique". Have fun. Let me know if you'd like to borrow The Gentle Art.
   MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot. 

1. 
   joinerswork | Aug 14, 2007 05:09am | #6

   Mel,

   I'd like to read Cescinski's book.  If you loan it to me, perhaps I can return the favor, and give it back...

   Did Mr Neil prefer his Bondo shaken, or stirred?

   I'm trying to perfect a way of building virtual furniture on the internet.  It will use cookies instead of biscuits, to link things together.

   Ray

1. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Aug 14, 2007 02:05pm | #7

   Ray,

   I think it's an acute sign - like paté. 

   Then there is the umaut ö, the grave Ù, the cedilla Ç and of course a tilde Ã.  How's that ¿ Oooopsss, guess I had the keyboard upside down!

   Too distressing for me..........

   Regards,

   Bob @ Kidderville Acres

    

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

   Edited 8/14/2007 7:08 am ET by KiddervilleAcres

2. 
   joinerswork | Aug 14, 2007 02:10pm | #8

   Bob,

   So, I made an acute, if not a grave, error?

   Ray

3. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Aug 14, 2007 02:26pm | #9

   Ray,

   Perhaps to a °, or maybe ± a ¼ if you have a ¥ for it, but definitely not a gravé error!

   Just my 2¢ but it's not ©opyrighted or a ¯egistered trademark.

   Good grief, I have way too much free time..................

   Regards,

   Bob @ Kidderville Acres

    

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

   Edited 8/14/2007 7:35 am ET by KiddervilleAcres

4. 
   9619 | Aug 14, 2007 03:59pm | #10

   Ray,
   send your mailing address to my personal email, and I will mail you the book. The entire woodworking group enjoyed Charles Neil's talk. The bondo thing really broke us up. He showed us a number of used for it. Who knows, maybe we'll have a thread on "Using Bondo in Fine Woodwork" someday. I will send you the book when I get your address. I expect you to sign the book, saying "This book was read by Ray Pine". Later I plan to auction the book on EBay, and use the proceeds to buy a few of Philip's planes and Mike's saws. IF the book really goes for a good price, I may be able to afford one of your smaller pieces of furniture, one of the ones you made with cookies instead of biscuits.Mel PS - I had another idea for making big bucks in woodworking. Current automated honing and sharpening devices move a spinning disk over a blade in a way that the blade continues to travese the same path, thus leaving one circle of sandpaper well used. I plan to put a mobile base on a Veritas honing jig, and control the movement of the honing jig over sandpaper glued to glass by means of a GPS receiver. This will spread the wear on the sandpaper over a greater area and reduce costs. If you leave your Scary Sharp glass and sandpaper on the floor, the jig will operate autonomously overnight, and your tools will be sharp in the morning. Currently it will take 350,000 years for the cost of the control system to pay for itself in terms of reduced sandpaper use. However, I feel that the "Mel Jig" will have a cachet much like the name "Festool", and it will sell well because of that cachet, and regardless of price. Now that I know that you speak French and German, you can be my sales rep in those two countries. There are big bucks in the future, Ray. I just gotta keep comin' up with new ideas.Measure your output in smiles per board foot. 

5. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Aug 14, 2007 04:09pm | #11

   Mel,

   I just spit peanuts all over my keyboard!  That was hillarious!

   Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres

    

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

6. 
   9619 | Aug 14, 2007 04:41pm | #12

   Bob,
   Sorry about your keyboard.
   Glad you enjoyed it.
   MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot. 

7. 
   joinerswork | Aug 16, 2007 02:22am | #13

   Mel,

   I just heard from a fellow today, (not c. neil) about casting a sanding block in bondo, to sand a large cove molding.  Great minds run in the same channel, or fools think alike??

   Try to get one of those interest only, sub-prime loans for your invention, it'll be paid off about the same time as the nat'l debt.  Have you thought of mounting a whirling blade so that you can pass a piece of hand held sandpaper over it?  Just a thought.

   You won't need much dough for one of my cookies.  'bout a Tbs will do.

   Did you hear about the risque best seller, in two volumes?  When it came out in Germany, everyone read the 2d volume first.  That's where all the verbs were.

   Ray nyuk, nyuk, nyuk

8. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Aug 16, 2007 02:48pm | #14

   Mel,

   There may be a certain amount of risk involved in your new venture.  Might I suggest a reputable law firm to represent you.

   View Image

   Regards,

   Bob @ Kidderville Acres

    

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

   Edited 8/16/2007 7:49 am ET by KiddervilleAcres

   
9. 
   9619 | Aug 16, 2007 04:56pm | #15

   Bob,
   Dewey, Cheatham and Howe look like my kind of people. But the one on the bottom is a little wierd looking, don't you think? :-)
   MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.