[bckskin2]

I want to make a hat rack our of a piece of barn siding. Is there an EASY way to make the sawn parts match?
Jerry

[Kenny_S]

Mix different shades of grey paint and paint the edges to match the weathered look.. I have done this in the past with great results.

[AlArchie]

Kenny is defintely on the right track. You can mix up paints to match the aged wood. Another route to go with acrylic paints is to water down a soft black or dark brown to a light wash and apply that to the cut ends. Let that dry and see how close you came. Then you can add more wash to the ends until you get exactly the shade you want.. different woods weather to different shades, so you can use a color that seems in line with the aged look of you particular piece, ie; brown, black, gray or even green. Rally dark colors watered down to a thin wash have worked well for me.

Here's a picture of a frame that has been treated with the wash. The outer frame is made from a weathered cedar fence post and the inner section is a piece of "fresh" cedar that has been worked over with a course wire wheel to "age" the grain, then treated with the wash I mentioned. This particular one was a thin wash of acrylic "soft black".

Al