LET ME TELL YOU HOW WE DID IT IN THE MOVIE IMDUSTRY. I WAS A PROPMAKER FOR 30 YEARS AND THERE WERE TIMES WE HAD TO STRESS A NEW TABLE OR CHAIR EVEN A FLOOR. WHAT WE DID WAS GET A CHAIN AND PUT SOME NUTS AND BOLTS IN IT. THEN WE JUST STARTED TO BEAT IT TO WHERE IT WAS TO OUR SATISFACTION. ALSO WORM HOLES LOOK GREAT. TAKE A SHARP PICK OR PICKS AND JUST DIG IN ON A SLIGHT ANGLE. THEN THERE IS SOMETHING FOR THE FINISH TO CRACKLE. I DON'T KNOW THE NAME OF IT BUT IT IS SOLD IN STORES. I HOPE THIS HELPS

I have found that lye, especially in the form of EASY OFF oven cleaner is perfect for cherry and soft maple. First surface your wood, then moisten with water and blot off any puddles. Just spray an even coat of oven cleaner on and blend it all in with a rag. Wait about 5 minutes and dowse the wood with water. Allow lt to dry, knock back the raised grain and apply dewaxed shellac as a sealer. There is a learning curve so a little practice won't hurt. You'll be amazed what happens to cherry. NICK

Rambling - This is something picked up from bonsai, where the object is to make the tree in the pot look old - very old.  I'll spare you the horticultural details, but one of the aspects of this is making freshly-dead wood on the tree look as if it's been there several hundred years.  And it will definitely work on a furniture piece, though this is fairly radical, and takes some effort - I would highly suggest that you practice on scraps until you get the effect that you want.

For a piece of wood to truly look as if it's been in the weather for a century, you need a certain kind of color and a certain kind of damage.  The first one other posters have hit on - the "weathered gray" look.  Here's how to achieve it:

The first thing to accomplish is the damage, which is erosion of the softer parts of the wood with the harder, latewood left proud of the surface - somtimes it's compared to cordoroy (sp?) fabric:

You will need a so-called "bead blaster" - you can rent one at a lot of industrial equipment rental places, and a bag of crushed walnut shells.  The latter item can sometimes be found at the equipment rental places, but you may have to do a web search.  The purpose for the walnut shells is that you want an abrasive that's sharp rather than round (as the beads or sand are).  What one does is to blast the surface of the wood (obviously), and with varying degree depending on the wood's location - if it's a horizontal surface or end-grain, go especially hard at it, and less on vertical, protected surfaces.  Obviously, this technique needs a wood selection that is amenable to the procedure - the harder softwoods with high latewood/earlywood contrast work best, such as cypress, juniper and yellow pine, but species like red/ white oak, ash, and reclaimed chestnut also work well.

The end result of this treatment should be that you've eroded the early wood, typically down about 1/16" from the surface.

Follow this treatment up with a blowtorch and a flame spreader - you're not after burning or charring the wood (thought that might look quite good on the end-grain portions), you're just trying to remove the "fuzzies" from the blast treatment.

There is, by the way, an alternative to the bead blaster - a heavy duty industrial side-grinder with a wire brush wheel.  It's not as convincing as the bead blaster, but it does work.

Once you've got the surface to your liking, you need to bleach the wood and then color it.  One of the best ways to do this is to use Lime Sulfur.  It's sold in garden stores as an insect-control spray.  It will bleach the wood, leaving it bone white, and the effect is instantaneous - I find it much faster and more convenient than the oxalic acid/peroxide "wood bleach" sold in paint stores.  Afterwards (whichever method you choose), wash the piece throughly with running water and allow it to dry, which will open up some checking on the end-grain surfaces (desirable).

Finally, to get the bone-white color back to weathered gray, mix up a solution of weak coffee - preferably about a tablespoon of brewed coffee in about a cup of water.  Use a sponge or a spray gun to go over the piece with this, and continue with additional coats or stronger coffee until you get the wood to the desired shade of darkening.

Then seal all of this with a good, matte film finish - either flat laquer or shellac with a flatting agent added to it.

This procedure is clearly a lot of work, but the final effect is very convincing.

There are a lot of good methods here. I would keep them all in mind. For aging, I usually use vinegar or concentrated pure apple juice like you get from the freezer section of a grocery store. (Very acidic, be careful!) Not all woods react the same, and sometimes it takes a while to see the effect, so a few small chunks of wood would be good for a test.

The paint stripping plastic bristle wheels you can put on a drill can do a good job of distressing, but they take a bit of artistry to get right.

When I want a strong feeling of age, but don't want to sacrifice the strength, lose the color too much, or leave active chemicals in the wood, I use a clear milk paint coating to get a deep yellowing with a dry feel on a hard finish.

If you mix powdered milk with undiluted concentrated apple juice, you can make a very hard and solid milk paint coating. If you mix this with oil and make an emulsion, it will remain a bit flexible, but without that it will be nearly impossible to remove, but can chip, especially in a thick enough coating. This will impart an old yellow solid coating that has a very dry and old feel to it unless quite a bit of oil is added.

For a bit more information on milk paint, check out http://toolmakingart.com/2008/06/16/two-layer-milk-paint/

Bob