Sawhorse: Steel Wool Aged Technique FAIL

I went from super excited to super bummed in the matter of 24 hours. I was real excited to try out a technique that I’ve been hearing about for awhile to make new wood look aged. As in….gray/weathered.

The making of this concoction is Apple Cider Vinegar and a piece of steel wool. You simply pour your apple cider vinegar over a piece of steel wool in a glass jar and then set aside for approximately 24 hours. It should leave behind a brownish liquid that you then use as your “stain.” It goes on pretty clear, soaks into the wood, and then as it dries it begins to turn the wood gray.

I know that it works because it overflowed out of our jar and onto our wood countertop island and stained a big chunk of our counter (I had to sand the whole thing down and reapply poly). However, it turned out really light and not quite what I was hoping for on the 1″ planks of whiteboard that I purchased from Home Depot. I even tried three different samples of the concoction (One with several pieces of steel wool, one with a lesser amount of vinegar, and one normal).

I was really committed to the gray look for the tabletop so I needed to figure out something else. I decided to try out colored stain. I bought two small bottles….one in a color lighter than our wall color and one in a darker color than our walls. I ended using the darker.

Since it was such a small bottle of stain and such a long tabletop, I ended up using leftover wall paint to paint the underside of the tabletop. On the topside, I did two coats of the paint/stain and finished it off with Briwax (Clear) to give it a shine.

Here’s a refresher of how it turned out;

So…..have you had any success with the Steel Wool Mixture? I’d love to see some finished products if you did….I still want to use it somewhere.