# turning Douglas fir to a grey brown old look



## gmoney (Nov 22, 2012)

finishing off a 12x14 shed with board/batten vertical Douglas fir siding. want pre finish with some sort of solution mix that will give the fir an old look with some weathered appearance. I have played around with a bit of some store bought mix that turned some cedar to a dark green appearance (that was after applying black tea to get some tannin into the wood) Since that I read about applying ferrous sulphate in water will do the same thing, have tried it and come up with a green look as well, I mixed a small amount with water, didn't' require any other mixing, just the colour is not what I was after. any suggestions using this iron based material? FYI: have also put steel wool into vinegar, but takes a long time to get a working solution. tks, gmoney in Ladner, BC


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

gmoney said:


> finishing off a 12x14 shed with board/batten vertical Douglas fir siding. want pre finish with some sort of solution mix that will give the fir an old look with some weathered appearance. I have played around with a bit of some store bought mix that turned some cedar to a dark green appearance (that was after applying black tea to get some tannin into the wood) Since that I read about applying ferrous sulphate in water will do the same thing, have tried it and come up with a green look as well, I mixed a small amount with water, didn't' require any other mixing, just the colour is not what I was after. any suggestions using this iron based material? FYI: have also put steel wool into vinegar, but takes a long time to get a working solution. tks, gmoney in Ladner, BC


It would probably take some tinkering to come up with the color you want. It's probably more than one color you need. The gray can be achieved by thinning some gray paint and using it for stain. Then seal it and go over it with a dark brown glaze. Then seal it again with a flat clear finish. Try to stay away from oil based finish for the clear as it yellows when it ages. You could use a water based polyurethane or any finish which is acrylic. Just be sure to work out the finish on scraps before trying it on the project.


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## holtzdreher (Jul 20, 2016)

plain old linseed oil causes wood to turn a drift wood grey, but faster than natural weathering.


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## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

Greetings from a little bit north. Yes. Where BKB Cedar Products mill burnt to the ground yesterday & 35 jobs gone.

My advice? Do nothing. Natural "weathering" doesn't take long.
1. I put 8 western red cedar wood carvings out on fenceposts facing south.
Two years and I think they are as grey as they will get. Been interesting to watch.

2. I can get a "bun" of Bulldog XX fine steel wool to dissolve in a liter of vinegar in 2 weeks.
On birch +/- tea tannin, it just made the wood look dirty, not weathered.

3. Under the microscope ( was part of my career = dendrology), the weathering does 2 things. First, a lot
of the lignins for wood color get bleached and leached out of the wood. Second, the surface layer of wood cells
is air-filled, the refraction changes so the wood looks silvery.

If you apply anything, you fill those air-cells and saturate the surface wood = doesn't look too weathered any more.
From an ancient saw mill site, I got a lot of Doug fir skinny offcuts and made some weathered board picture frames.
I did nothing at all. The picture frames look great. They're not subject to any wear and tear so they thrive on neglect.

My next door neighbor put up all new cedar panel fencing. Left it all to weather. Looks great 
BUT
It is very attractive to the wasps for hive-making paper. You can see their vertical chew marks.


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## ColorStylist (Jul 19, 2014)

As Steve said, a grey paint (reduced roughly 2:1 with its appropriate thinner) and then I reduced wiping stain (1:2 with its appropriate reducer) will give you the look you want. Below, the one of the left I used a grey with a black and raw umber wipe stain. The one on the right I used more of an off white with a white and black mix wipe stain, more of a smokey look. 

So if you want a "bright" grey, use an off white first. If you want it to be a darker grey, use a grey as your basecoat. The key is to dial in what wipe you need to use to achieve your final color. Add distressing like rock marks, skive the edges of the boards, and round off edges to give it a more warn look.


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## Quickstep (Apr 10, 2012)

Cabot makes products called Weathering Stain and Bleaching Stain that might do what you want.


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