I'm in the process of making some boxes. The prototype turned out
quite nicely, but for the next one I decided I wanted the wood to come
out looking like it was old. NO, I am NOT talking about distressing it,
I don/'t beat up wood. I still want the nice, new, wood, but with a
darker, sorta aged, long used, look. Figured stain would work.

Then I got to thinking. Hmm. Got some latex paint I've been
working with. Hmm. How about mix up some brown, thin it, and try that.
Hmmmm. Had already tried something similar with a project that I wanted
to have a weathered copper look, and that worked out quite well.

So, I mixed up a brown that I thought would dry to about what I
wanted. Using scrap, of course, thinned it out a bit, and painted some
on. Hmmm, looking pretty decent, can still see the wood grain. Thinned
some more, even better. Thinned still more, this batch was more like a
wash than a stain, best of all.

It set for a couple of days, before I remembered to check. First
was fair, but still too much like paint. Second was decent, really,
showed the grain and all, but not quite. Third batch was great. wood
looked natural, looked like it had grown that way, got it almost right.

Almost right. Seems I mixed the brown in a corner, with not so
good lighting. It turned out as a quite nice purplish color - not
exactly what I was afterr. Testing continues, but it looks like I won't
buy stain, at least for now.

On the bright side, some later projects will probably end up with
paper labels glued on. So, I tried some more latex "washes", and glued
some labels on. No way of testing, but they seem to be on about as well
as if they were glued to bare wood. Titebond II is my glue of choice.
Everything is working out quite well it seems.

JOAT
Everything happens for a reason, except possibly football.
- Lu-Tze

Life just ain't life without good music. - JOAT
Web Page Update 23 Jul 2003. Some tunes I like.
http://community-2.webtv.net/Jakofal...All/page4.html