I have not heard about this, but I think white vinegar has the most acid content, so it may be the one to use. Old barn wood is everywhere here in Southern Maryland, I've never needed to try this. Have you googled or tried ask.com yet?
PJ

My guess would be white vinegar, otherwise it's usually specified. I'd try it on a scrap of wood.

Summer

Wow,I'll try it,lol. I have scrap lumber and vinegar. I think I'm out of cider vinegar,but I have lots of white vinegar that I wash windows with !I'll also look it up and see what I can find. I never heard of this before,but sounds great..thanks for sharing!

The one I had read about, was put a chunk of steelwool in vinigar foe a while, then take it out and brush on this liquid, seems to me something about putting it in the sun,..? I will have to see if I saved it, I think it was done on cedar, but worth a try on any wood I guess..

Hi there,

I usually just lurk - But I just used this technique to age some wood for birdhouses. I was making several for a cancer benefit sale & didn't have enough aged wood so I googled til I found this link. Worked like a charm.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aging wood link

The link on aging wood interesting too, tho a lot of steps involved. I'm curious if what I read in paper is as simple as they said, just vinegar on wood. Need to buy some vinegar and try it. Really wished I lived where i could find real barn wood tho.

Karen

I have tried a similar technique:

Place 4 or 5 rusty nails in a gallon of white vinegar. Let sit for a couple of days.

Apply rusty vinegar to wood like you would a stain. The rusty vinegar reacts with the tanins in the wood, turning it grey/black. I did it on a cedar fence picket that I needed to match my old fence.

P.S. If you need to know how to make your nails rusty, I have a tip for that too.

Good luck

LOL, good thinking, Sunkissed. None of my nails are rusty so could use a tip to make them that way.

Cool tips. I was looking for barn wood too. But will try this method first. There's a lot of snakes out this spring, to be out there lifting up old wood piles. Better to look in the winter.

I know vinegar water and sun will rust metal quickly. Have never thought about trying it on boards.

You could also find someone tearing down an old wood fence, most of that wood would look pretty aged from the weather.

Luvs

Why not just go get a stain than bother with vinegar?

I have another great technique to age wood. Get a propane blow torch. Torch your wood until black. Brush off the soot with a steel brush. The soft part of the wood burns faster than the hard leaving nice grooves, just like old weathered wood has. This is kind of messy, but is absolutely the best way to get a true aged look. The brown color will fade in a few months (if left outdoors), but you can always add a stain for a more permanent color. Don't hesitate to hack away at the wood before you torch it.

Well I'm glad I read this....one end of our barn/house was three garage doors when we bought it...we turned that end into two bedrooms and fill the outside wall with wood to match the rest...it has only weather on the bottom half...I think because there is such a big overhang that the top part is protected. I'll have to "paint it with the vinegar" to get it to match the rest.

Thanks for dredging this post up! I never heard of this. Great info!

Instead of using rusty nails you can add very fine steel wool to the vinegar. It will "cook" overnight. The surface area of the steel wool would be many times greater than the nails and would work much faster.

I see drift wood that has raised grain and would really like to duplicate this on my projects. Any ideas on how to accomplish this? I read the post about torching the wood. My question there is, can you achieve a good finish after burning? I wouldn't want it looking charred.
Thanks!!

A friend just tried this technique and tried using the white vinegar first with the steel wool. She first roughed up the edges of the board to make it look like it has been through some beatings. Then she brushed on the solution. She did not like the result on un-treated wood since it was much redder than she wanted. She was looking for the silvery gray color. So she sanded off as much as she could, leaving a bit of the red color for some accent. Then she tried covering it again with the apple cider vinegar and steel wool. The result was simply beautiful and she is ready to make her farm table with the boards. There is a true difference in the type of vinegar you use.