Imitating Weathered Pine

Here’s another question  posed in www.woodworkingtalk.com.  My answer follows.

hey guys how you doing. This will be my first post in the forum. I’m relatively new in woodworking. I need some help on how to finish a table i’m working on. My mother has a beautiful Mexican table which is what i want on mine. Its kind of a weather deterioration. I’ve tried muriatic acid and a metallic bristle brush but with no success. Tried again with the same brush but with hot water, and nothing. The wood im using is white pine. I’m beginning to think this is impossible please help me!

the pic i uploaded are form my mothers table!! cheers!

My thoughts:

If your trying to get a raised growth rings, you would have to pick a similar grained pattern of wood to your mother’s table. If you don’t have the equipment to sand blast, you could try using a hard wire brush. This will take out the soft in between fibres, but, obviously the results will depend on your wood choice.  Pine may a be a bit to soft as the  growth rings look very hard, I’m not sure pine annular rings would be so marked. The wire brush should have separated rows of bristles to clear the annular rings. Don’t use water based finish as it may react with any wire particles left behind. It’s a fair bit of work involved!