I made this pirate chest using ground-contact rated framing lumber. Now I want to find a way to make it look old and weathered. I’m considering going over it with a blow torch to slightly char, color, and age the outside of it before giving it a coat of tung oil. Does anyone here have any experience trying this, or have a better suggestion? Also, I’m tryng to find a source for some iron strap hinges and locks or hasps that would look appropriate on this kind of chest. Does anyone have any suggestons?
Edited 8/2/2008 1:21 pm by labolle
Replies
OK, this is a head-scratcher. Why'd you put so much work (nice joinery by the way) into a piece made out of CCA treated lumber? If it's the older kind, it contains copper, chromium and arsenic. If it's the newer kind, it contains chromium and copper. Neither are too good for an indoor application, and most definitely not to be given to a child.
If the reason is that it is intended for outdoor use, then I'd suggest just putting it outdoors. Within a year, it will be gray and weathered.
You can get some very authentic looking iron hinges from Horton Brasses, White Chapel, and Van Dyke Restorers. The Hortons are high quality, semi-handmade, and pricey. The Van Dyke Restorers hardware is made by slave labor in Asia and is cheap, though less authentic looking than than the Horton stuff.
You might also check the phone book for a local blacksmith and/or someone who does wrought iron work. Once the hinges and strapping are in place. I've heard of people "distressing/aging" pieces with lengths of chain and some elbow grease. A craft outlet might have molds for barnacles and such, as well silk seaweed. You can add finishing touches with some rubbed-on/mostly-rubbed-off black and/or dark brown paint/stain. Natural sponges also work well for dabbing light touches of paint for a weathered look.
I would suggest milk paint for the finish:
http://www.milkpaint.com/path_historic.html
Two coats and then scrub it with steel wool. If that's not enough, you can make wear marks with a variety of implements.
Whitechapel is good source for hardware:
http://www.whitechapel-ltd.com/
If you like, you can also antique standard galvanized hardware by stripping the zinc off with muriatic acid and blackening the steel with a torch.
If I may say so, your blowtorch idea will only produce a piece that looks like someone took a blowtorch to a new piece to try to make it look old. Don't do this. Or at least, try it out on some scrap and convince yourself.
I think you're much better off using traditional distressing methods. Start putting on coats of orange shellac, and use various distressing tricks in between - paint splatters, chain and hammer blows, etc. You can also paint a solid color and then more or less sand it off. There are finishing books full of this stuff.
If you really want it to look old, then bury the chest outside in horse manure for about 6 months, then move on to finish with shellac.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
I made a treasure chest a year or so ago and struggled to find hardware which I liked. So I used 3/4" wide steel strapping and textured it with a ball peen hammer (the ball end). I also cold forged the hinge knuckles, which are an integral part of the straps with the help of a metal vise. I cut the knuckles with a hacksaw and used a cold chisel to pop out the waste. Apply a spray primer and a coat of paint to finish up.
A lock will be the hardest thing for you to make match. A hasp can be made the same way as the hinges, but the lock will likely look out of place. You might get away with a lock which is mortised into the edge or inside of the box. That way, it would only be seen when the box is open. Remember: it's best to get your hardware before starting a project!
To distress the wood, use any thing you like. I used keys, scraps of wood, anything I could get my hands on.
I don't understand why you've chosen ground rated (presumably treated) wood for this project.
Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Chris,
I really like the way your hardware came out! Great job. I'll try my best to reproduce something along those lines, but I'm not quite sure how you achived it. Did you just take flat steel straps and bend and roll it yourself to form the hinge?
To answer all who asked why I chose to use treated lumber to make this thing. There are two reasons: One, I have been considering making a box to put on the back of my motorcyle and thought this would be a good wood and method of joinery to stand up to the sun, rain, and vibration. Realistically though, it probably won't be on the bike more than a week or two to show off to a few friends and make them scratch their heads a bit.
Two, the main reason I chose this wood is that I had it laying around and I have not been able to find any other planks or boards that were as thick as I wanted for this one. Not much choice in the lumber yards here in Taiwan.
You can probably see in the picture where I jointed another board along the bottom of the box planks to make them taller. I didn't realize how mismatched the boards were till I started planing it flat. I'm hoping that through my antiquing process I will be able to make them look a more like they belong together, without complely hiding my joinery in the process.
The project has been a big exercise in technique to see if I could pull it off. It was my first attempt at coopering a rounded lid by hand (or any other way). Now that this one is just about done, my three teenage daughters each want me to make them a hope chest along these lines. I guess I will have to come up with a better source for my lumber, I don't want to poison them or future generations.
Cheers,
David L.
David,
The texturing of that hardware took a lot of time and produced a lot of noise. But the result was definately worth it. I started with my 3/4" wide by 1/8" thick steel strap and just beat the snot out of it with the ball peen hammer. This is a good thing to do after a bad day. Too much traffic... WHACK... hate waking up early... WHACK...
To form the hinge, I clamped the stock in my metalworking vise with about 3/8" protruding. Then I beat it around until it folded (rolled) over on itself. I didn't think to insert the pin in the middle and beat the strap around it. Instead, I bored out the center with a 1/8" bit in the drill press.
To get the straps to conform to the chest, it was a matter of trial and error. I found that the textured straps were a very forgiving material. If I bent it in the wrong place, I could bend it back and start again. I secured the straps with pyramid screws from LV.Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
David -
Since you're in Taiwan, you likely have access to some South Asian timbers that would make wonderful hope chests for your daughters. For those of us in the states, South Asian wood is very expensive (primarily due to shipping).
Regarding the antiquing of the chest - I've seen articles on using blowtorchs to render a very convincing aged surface, but the torch was used to age paint, not the bare surface. Considering your close-to-tropical climate, I'd still suggest sun exposure to turn the wood an even gray color, then darken it a bit with an aniline dye, or possibly rubbed-in lampblack and wax.
If you do decide to use a blowtorch, do it outside. There are some nasty organic chemicals in the latest incarnation of ground-contact treated wood, and you'll release some of them (as well as vaporize some of the chromium and copper content) by heating the wood. The released fumes aren't good for you, but you're not going to keel over as you would if you were breathing cyanide or hydrogen sulfide - just make sure you take reasonable precautions.
The torch can be used to "age" bare wood. Of course, test it first.
I REALLY like the idea of milk paint best. This will always be a "new" piece. Milk paint adds a lot of charm, and sea chests were indeed painted.
The other possibility is to paint it or paint it and rub it off so it looks worn. Leave some paint in the grain. The distress it if you must, and topcoat it with some varnish, maybe rubbing some black into the grain a little for more "dirt" or wear look.Gretchen
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Thank you to all who gave great suggestions and cool techniques for creating an aged look for my pirate chest.
I prepared some scrap wood and planned to try each different method suggested to me, then chose the one that came the closest to the look I wanted.
The first method I tried was going over a piece of pine slowly with a blow torch to see how it would look. It was EXACTLY the look that I had in my mind, so I went with that. You can see here how it turned out. To get this look I ran the flame slowly left to right going with the grain. Then immediately afterwards I gave it a coat of tung oil to seal in that charred look.
Still looking for the right hardware.
Edited 8/9/2008 1:30 am by labolle
Nice job Labolle, Your chest is visually interesting.
Tom.
Wow! That's really eye-catching! I'd recommend building yourself another box for the back of your bike - you don't want the box stealing attention away from your bike, do you?Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Your astute method of trying techniques on scrap really paid off! The grain really jumps out in an amazing way! Hopefully you will be able to locate just the right wrought iron hardware to compliment your handiwork.
Very nice indeed , were the dovetails cut by hand or jig ? How did you form the curved top ? What are the dimensions ? Thanks for posting , Gary
Very nice indeed, were the dovetails cut by hand or jig? How did you form the curved top? What are the dimensions? Thanks for posting, Gary<!----><!----><!---->
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The dovetails and miters were cut by hand. Here is a basic outline of my method<!----><!---->
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=50670
The way I go about doing those is based greatly on the influence of Frank Klausz. Here is a link to an article about his method:
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/magazineindex?mid=12103
Frank Klausz's Final Word On Dovetails.
Popular Woodworking October 2005 Issue #150 page 46---<!----><!---->
The top was the first thing I made for this box. I had some 2x6 treated lumber lying around and decided to try and make a curved top with it. The first thing I did was take a 5-gallon bucket and place it on the board then I fit as much of it as I could on the board and traced a half circle on the board. Then I used a jig saw and cut out that shape. I did two of those. They were not perfect matches as the jig saw left a fairly rough cut. So I used a hot glue gun to glue them together side-by-side then cleaned up the rounded edges with a bench mounted belt sander. After they were a perfect match I popped them apart and cleaned off the glue. <!----><!---->
I had a bunch of approximately 1/2" square sticks left over as off cuts from another project and decided to try and use them. I didn't measure a set length for the sticks. To get the length I set the two sides on edge standing on my workbench and moved them in and out till I came up with a spacing that I thought looked good. I marked this length on a stick, and then cut a bunch of other sticks to the same length.<!----><!---->
I clamped one at the bottom edge of each side and drilled a 6mm hole at each end and with a generous amount of wood glue pounded disposable bamboo chopsticks in each one the cut them off about a 1/4" proud with a pair of pliers (knowing I would clean them up later with a chisel or plane.<!----><!---->
Then I took another square stick and played it on top of the first. Being square it would not lay flat on the stick below and flush on round of the sides at the same time. So taking note of which was the bottom back edge I lay it on my bench and took a jointer plane to take a off a few shavings putting more pressure on that back bottom corner to make the stick fit. After a few tries I got it lay fairly tightly, marked it with #2 and moved grabbed another stick to do the same with #3. After I had about six of these ready I glued and strapped them down, drilled more holes, pounded in chopsticks and continued. Once I reached the top, I started again from the other side. The last stick was a bit trickier since I needed to plane two sides to get it to fit. You might be able to tell which one it is the photo. It is top dead center and slightly wider than the others.<!----><!---->
Once the top was done I went over it with a plane then a palm sander. Then I cut some more boards from the plank to make the box that goes under the lid. Once I had them on the bench standing on edge with the lid balanced on top I decided that the box needed to be a bit taller to be proportional to the lid. I thought about using the same wood, the 2x6, and ripping it to width, but opted instead to use a 2x4 I had instead to joint onto the 2x6 so I wouldn't waste wood. I now regret doing this as the difference between the grain patterns on the top and bottom boards of the box is too great.<!----><!---->
Here is a pic. to give the approximate sizes of the box<!----><!---->
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Edited 8/12/2008 7:17 am by labolle
Edited 8/12/2008 7:24 am by labolle
Edited 8/12/2008 7:26 am by labolle
Edited 8/12/2008 9:43 am by labolle
You might also try some wax to prevent paint/finish covering wear areas. The idea would be to rub a little wax on high surfaces and/or place where the piece would naturally receive wear and then put the final finish on top. A little sanding, scraping to blend and instant age. Looks great, but you might want to darken some more and use the wax technique to simulate more age. Dan Carroll
thanks a bunch , it actually looks bigger in the previous photos . Lets see it once its got the straps on and finally done , Gary
I like the effect the blow torch produced.
Unfortunately, iron (amoung many other metals) will corode very quickly when in contact with PT wood. This is why special fasteners are used to make decks, etc. Stainless steel and double dipped galvanized are the only safe metals that I know of, but there may be more.
I must show your chest to my wife bc she's wanted me to build one for her special Harry Potter box set.
Also, I'm tryng to find a source for some iron strap hinges and locks or hasps that would look appropriate on this kind of chest.
Not sure why the ground contact lumber.. May not be safe in a house.. Not sure..
As far as the hardware.. Get anything you like local and a good old ball pein hammer hammer will do wonders on it!
Did you see the hardware I made for my chest? Maybe I should go into the treasure chest hardware business instead!Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Sorry... I never saw the hardware.. but I did see that 'heat treated look!' Reminds me of my old den!.. I like the look!
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