Finishing Timbers

Hello Everyone we are working on a hybrid post and beam. The core of the house is post and beam timbers with steel work as the joining areas. All the timbers are DF being cut and milled by a local mill. Plan is to finish them with Land Ark. We are trying to keep them as natural a finish as possible. One thing we like is the water staining from iron washers or steel as this develops a nice patina. Is there any way to accelerate or simulate that process? Or if anyone has any other finishing ideas we could consider that would be great.

thanks!

Try dissolving steel wool in white vinegar. Single or multiple coats. You could apply LandArk over that stain.

That stain should work well since it reacts with the tannins in the wood. Make sure you try various mixtures on some scrap to make sure you are happy with the result!

I'm not exactly sure what you are wanting. Do you want to grey the timbers? I have tried the steel wool/vinegar/water method. I found I had to tape off a bunch of test sections on a board and thin out the mixture with more and more water until I got the finish light enough. I actually tried it on White oak, DF, Beech, and Cedar. The White oak was the worst. This mixture will turn the oak very dark and an un-natural look. Even thinning it out a lot it tends to still be too dark and look un-natural. It looked better on the other woods, but still not totally like natural greying. I also contacted Lifetime Wood Treatment and they said the same thing about Oak, that it would turn it too dark. Their product is a powder and I suspect that it is very similar to the vinegar/steel wool mixture.

In the end you just need to experiment.

I've heard potassium permanganate will age wood, but haven't tried it yet.