Post #564509 by kahalakruzer on Wed, Nov 10, 2010 9:04 PM

On 2010-11-09 22:21, Suicide Tiki wrote:
I have seen people mention wire brushing their wood to raise the grain... but have no idea how to do that. Does anyone have any tips for a first timer? Is it as simple as taking a wire brush and brushing the bejesus out of the wood?
[ Edited by: Suicide Tiki 2010-11-09 22:22 ]

Welcome to the home bars section Suicide. As you've probably seen, there are tons of people here with millions of great ideas to "borrow". As for the wire brushing... What you need to do is get a small propane torch from Lowes/Home Depot (they're $10-15) and torch the hell out of the wood. Once the outer layer starts looking like charcoal (a few seconds honestly), take a wire brush (I use the barbecue grill cleaning brushes because of how wide they are) and brush it off. It's really as simple as that. The ash from the wood gives it a nice rich brown color, and the winter grains will rise up pretty dramatically. Just start with a small section at a time to gauge what you're going to be working with. Standard pine lumber works amazingly well for the effect. You can put a wax/stain/varnish over the wood, but it really isn't imperative. Probably the cheapest, easiest effect you can do in a home bar. Hope that helped.