Vitco shelves pleeze

Ok, when I saw Tiki Lee's space at the antique mall, i coveted his witco-styled shelving for our new tiki bar.

so who knows how to make such a thing. is there a way to do a controled burn? there has got to be a way to create that dark distressed look from Home Depot lumber...

apologies if this has been explained before - did a search but could find nothing.

FG,
Use a propane torch and a good stiff wire brush. I did this with some Doudlass Fir once, it came out good. Witco used cedar I believe, Kiegs?. Anyway, turn the hose on, use one of those pistol grip sprayers for fire control. Turn the propane torch on and brush the wood slowly till it turns black, let it cool then brush it with the wire bruch. The theory here is the grain dosen't burn as fast as the wood so it sticks up. If you don't like the results experiment with how you burn it.
Mahalo,
Al

Cedar and redwood are good candidates. I don't know about Cali or Vegas, but we can get cedar fence boards here really cheap and they make good shelving material. They're rough cut, but if you're planning on doing the burn 'n brush finish it doesn't matter.

thanks guys!

commission keigs20 to make you the real deal- my "new witco" tiki shelf is awesome, and it has tikis on it!

FuturaGirl,
The Witco shelves at Red Rooster are probably from Keigs. Hula Hula and I talked to Tiki Lee at the Mondo Tiki event and he told us that he orders them from "guy who is Witco's grandson in-law." He carries Keigs Witco style masks too.

**Poly-Pop ***

[ Edited by: PolynesianPop on 2003-08-22 08:17 ]

MM, it just clicked that I know Lee. Met him at OA and then later at the Mondo Tiki. Nice guy and yes those are Keigs Witco style things.

I tried the Torch technique on a Uke holder I made with decent results. I didn't use a real dark stain because I was trying to get close to matching the color of my tiki mug shelves. Of course after burning it, the color was a bit darker than the unburned shelves. I also ran into trouble getting an even color on the low relief sections of the Uke holder. They had a tendency not to burn and darken as quick as the raised parts.
All in all, I am happy with it and it gets my Uke of the floor!
Chongolio

-- I believe that our Heavenly Father invented the monkey because he was disappointed in man."
... Mark Twain

[ Edited by: Chongolio on 2003-09-03 13:55 ]