How do they do this with fine joinery?

I’m not sure I understand your question, spunwood. The link shows some really beautiful pieces with some interesting joinery, especially that curvy rail and stile top. I suspect they executed these joints with simple router patterns, if not by cnc lol. It looks like they’ve preserved some blade marks and made a few dings here and there. If you’re not a handplane guy, you might want to play around with a scrub plane. You can get a distinctly distressed surface that you might like.

-- My dad and I built a 65 chev pick up.I killed trannys in that thing for some reason-Hog

Speaking from experience, there is a lot of work that goes into making wood look old.

This process is called distressing and is considered part of the finishing process.
Saw marks, chisel gouges, old paint, dents, dings, wire brushing and worn edges are all added to virgin wood.

In some cases, reclaimed barnwood is used to get a leg up on the process, but this adds a lot of expense to the raw materials. Still, in either case, distressing is added to the finished piece to tie it all together.

The effects can be duplicated with new wood, but, it is time consuming.

-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS251

Using old wood can be a bit of a challenge. I often just “skip plane” the wood which leaves a relative thickness while smoothing the basic wood piece. I run it thru the planer to take very light cuts both top and bottom. This will leave me the dimension I need without loosing the character of the rough wood. Then, a light sanding to touch up the wood and make it able to take a finish.
Bill

-- bill@magraphics.us

It’s like they’ve only semi planed the surface to preserve some of the saw marks – there’s a fine line between having a usable surface and a splinter hazard/breeding ground for bacteria.
I’ve done some distressing before (Charles Bronson Deathwish style with a sock and various bits of hardware) and I found that to get it looking genuinely beat up looking, you have to distress it, then add a dark stain into all the dints and knocks and scratches (actually, scrawping the claw of a claw hammer is a good one in strategic places), sand or scrape the surface clean so the dark stain is left in the indentations.
Then apply finish – and a good tip there is to wipe off the finish in areas away from the edges to lighten it – leaving the edges darker and looking like they’ve been handled for generations.
As a general rule, beat up areas that would take a knock in real life, and keep it random, and know when to stop.

-- Never trust a man in winklepickers

I really don’t like the rustic style. It seems to me the Chaiwanese have it mastered and I’m not sure it’s intentional.

I was in a really fancy 20million dollar house at my old job and the wine cellar had this door that looked 600 years old. The German guy who built the house gets all these guys in from Europe to do the fancy work in his house.

-- Tyrone - Canada, BC

there is a process called ‘aging the furniture’ in which after they are made square and clean, they are aged to look rustic and/or old/of-use

-- ㊍ When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Genuinely old I have a lot of respect for. I would never try to make something look old on purpose. My wife is kind of into that though thanks to the million how-to’s on the DIY channel and Pintrest.
I am aligned with some of Tyrone’s sentiments. “Aged” is now a marketing gimmick to make your particle board massed produced crap look different and more authentic than your neighbors particle board mass produced crap. If you want something to look old, build it right and let it get old on it’s own.

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

What will all this aged furniture look like in 300 years? I think it’ll be garbage and the truly old stuff will still be standing.
I went to Homesense a really long time ago with my mother and all the furniture in there is, “Aged”. There was also one store at a mall in Calgary that sold only “aged” stuff. I think it’s easier for them to slap the word “aged” on it than to actually take care when manufacturing.
The only stuff I could find that isn’t “aged” is the Ikea garbage that they try to trick you into thinking it’s made in some European country.

-- Tyrone - Canada, BC

in 10 years the 1/32” veneer will be peeling off, the barrel nuts will have pulled through the particle board, and it will be on the tree belt hoping the trash collectors take it for free. If you REALLY like the distressed look, go to a yard sale and pick up some old solid wood furniture. Sand it down, beat it with a sock full of nuts and bolts. Slap some milk paint on it, sand through the edges then slap some stain over that and call it a day.

This is plywood veneered walnut, and FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS from crate and barrel. You could make this out of dimensional lumber for about 30$

Also why someone would do that to walnut is beyond me.

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

Wow, really interesting stuff fella’s.

I have to say that I think some of furniture from the link I posted is genuinly attractive.

To me the ‘aging’ looks so authentic, that I want to think it is real rather than, a finishing feature, but I will trust yall.

Thanks,
brandon

-- I came, I was conquered, I was born again. ἵνα ὦσιν ἓν

well brandon, to be sure the stuff you linked to is far better than the piece of crap joe just posted. I have to agree though with the general sentiment here that furniture is better off built well the first time and letting nature take its course. if you want to do it yourself, i’d suggest starting with some reclaimed wood – that way your finished piece has two stories to tell and it helps the finish product looked distressed, but not artificially so.

I’m havin a heart attack from seeing the prices. Very beautiful tho

-- Roger from KY. Work/Play/Travel Safe. Kentuk55@bellsouth.net

That’s exactly what I was thinking Roger!

-- I came, I was conquered, I was born again. ἵνα ὦσιν ἓν

I’ve had some luck taking rough-looking pieces of wood and squaring them on one side with the bandsaw, and then the planer. It can be done.

-- Lis - Michigan - http://www.missmooseart.com - https://www.etsy.com/people/lisbokt

I’m havin a heart attack from seeing the prices.

Did I mention that the finish is a lot of work?

It’s at these price levels that cost of materials becomes less significant to the price.

The flip side to these rustic pieces are the high gloss contemporary pieces.
Once again, materials not so significant, but the finish is lots and lots of work.

I did a dining table recently that took a week to build and three weeks to finish.

-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS251