DIY: Distressing

I'm not much of a tutorial writer.  It's just not my forte.   I'm also a hands-on learner.

I have to do it myself to really learn it.

So here are some photos of how to distress wood.

Take a basic piece of wood.  This is a pine scrap from our shop.

Get angry at the piece of wood.  Hit it with hammers, and scratch it or bang it with multiple screwdrivers and blunt objects.  We have a metal chain duct-taped to a mallet that I can just drop on it.  I used to put screws in plastic bags and hit wood, until my hands bled one too many times from screws poking through the plastic bags.

 Take a palm sander (or sand paper if you have limitless time on your hands), and sand up the edges.  I highly suggest buying a palm sander.  You can get a little one for about $20.  The purpose is to make your object look like it's been through hard times and not like it was just bought off of the rack at a lumber yard.   Make sure you sand all of the corners so they're nice and rounded.

 Stain it if you like...this one isn't nearly as dark as I could have allowed it to be. (read: I don't really like how this looks...)  I just wanted a more easily photographed demo of how when you stain distressed wood, the stain will sink in and be darker than the general area.  

 Since it's a scrap, I'm resisting the temptation to go back and stain it some more and make it look pretty.
I just love staining things.
What would you use distressed wood to make?