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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    6

    Default How do I make Red Cedar look grey

    Hi All,

    Please excuse any stupid questions, this is my first post.

    My wife has requested a new table, preferably with a grey-ish finish. I want to use fairly thin hardwood planks for strong wear, but thin to reduce weight (I have a very bad back).

    My father has a pile of house cladding that he thinks is 80 year old American red cedar. Attached is an image of a cut section, the non-cut surface is very grey with age. It's not paint you're looking at!

    The grey aged surface is quite worn and pitted (not necessarily bad) but does need some clean up including some glue removal. How do I use this lovely timber, but return it to an aged grey coloring?? I also want a polyeurothane (I think?? Something shiny) finish.

    Thanks for any help.

    cedar.jpg

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    Somerset Region, Qld, AU.
    Age
    66
    Posts
    77

    Default

    My very limited understanding is that the grey appearance that Western Red Cedar takes on after a few years exposure to the sun is the result of natural bleaching resulting from exposure to Ultra Violet light.

    Maybe try bleaching a sample of freshly milled western red cedar with some Ammonia Bleach, or maybe with Hydrogen Peroxide. You may get the immediate results you're looking for. But how the appearance of the bleached timber will change in the future under a varnish finish is something that you may not know for a few years. Do a Google search for "timber bleaching" - there seems to be heaps of stuff out there.

    Roy
    Manufacturer of the Finest Quality Off-Cuts.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    San Antonio, Texas, USA
    Posts
    339

    Default

    Artificial aging of wood can be induced by using potassium dichromate. (http://www.shellac.net/Dichromate-Tannin.html) It is extremely dangerous stuff and unless you're very familiar with chemical safety and have a way of properly disposing of the waste I don't suggest it.

    If you work with dilute solution and go easy this may be an alternative: http://www.wwgoa.com/article/ebonizing-wood/
    Innovations are those useful things that, by dint of chance, manage to survive the stupidity and destructive tendencies inherent in human nature.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Tasmaniac
    Posts
    64

    Default

    Simple. Get some really strong household bleach and bleach it.
    Strongest stuff you can get from your local supermarket should do the trick.
    Splash it on liberally, let it soak for a good while.Then hose off.
    Wait till it dries out and ,ta dah!.
    If that does not bleach it enough for ya, then try some Sodium Hyperchlorite (use appropriate safety equipment). Eye,protection, breathing protection. etc.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Tasmaniac
    Posts
    64

    Default

    FYI.
    Used the bleaching process on these bones (sculptures). As I was after a well.....bleached bone finish.

    1-DSCF3047.jpg
    Top one, tried builders lime to start with.
    Then bleach.
    Other ones went straight for the sodium hyperchlorite.
    Peroxide is another option, but it becomes very dangerous when it gets pure. Like. really really dangerous and best left alone.
    I reckon you could even use pool chlorine to bleach the bejeezus out of timber.....just research what you are doing first.
    It's all fun and games till someone loses something....you know, like an eye, a lung, a rental agreement etc.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    gippsland
    Posts
    82

    Default

    Could try diluted hydrochloric acid, brick cleaners had no problems turning WRC windows grey on a few jobs.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 1999
    Location
    Westleigh, Sydney
    Age
    78
    Posts
    1,332

    Default

    Slightly off track, but there are certainly some dangerous chemicals mentioned here, so use appropriate protective equipment for whatever you choose.

    Interesting that potassium dichromate was mentioned, now well known as being carcinogenic and allergenic. At school, we used it in Tech. Drawing to develop blueprints, and I was able, as a 13 or 14 year old, to buy a packet from the chemist.
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  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Queensland
    Posts
    613

    Default

    Potassium Dichromate used to be used in Qld schools in the 60's as the so called "volcano experiment ", a small pile was ignited using a hot wire and it would "show" a volcano. Noooo way should this be done .
    Regards,
    Bob

    Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Brisbane
    Posts
    596

    Default Timber ID query

    Quote Originally Posted by headingwest View Post

    My father has a pile of house cladding that he thinks is 80 year old American red cedar. Attached is an image of a cut section, the non-cut surface is very grey with age. It's not paint you're looking at!

    cedar.jpg
    I can't help re the finish but, to me, the photo does not look like American Western Red Cedar, nor even Californian Redwood (both of these are coniferous plants that were/are frequently used in Australia). It is a bit difficult to tell from the photo but there seem to be distinct pores in it. If there are pores then it is a flowering plant, not a conifer. Conifers (like pine trees etc.) do not have pores but have distinct banding (called early wood and latewood, the latter being denser, darker in colour and hardness).

    If your timber does have pores in it it may be Australian Red Cedar (Toona ciliata).

    If it is Toona it is worth more than if it is an American conifer, and it may also react differently to treatments, though I have no experience with that, apart from knowing it does go grey like that in the weather.

    I hope this helps in your quest.

    David

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    6

    Default

    Just to close off this thread with my result...

    Most opinions for people who've handled the timber suggests Eucalypt. It fits that it's 100yo cladding from a local house on the estate of a saw mill here in Sydney. Grants used to be given for a tract of bush to be milled, this was in Pymble. Timber was a lucrative business.

    We achieved the colour we wanted as follows:
    - Mix fresh ground coffee with steel wool and white vinegar
    - let it soak for a week
    - brush it onto the timber

    The mix bleaches and greys/browns the timber and really brings out the grain.
    table1.jpgtable3.jpg

    We finished it with 3 layers of floor lacquer, which surprisingly already has scratches. I'd hoped the floor lacquer would be super tough as people walk on it.

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