Making a new ballpark stadium seat look old?


ArcherSeating

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Hi all. Just discovered this website and I'm curious if anyone has found videos/articles on here related to a project we have for our company, Archer Seating. People love the oldtime look of ballpark seats, even if they're made from parts of unremarkable stadiums. One of our best sellers is this seat:

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We'd love to figure out a way to give it that old–time feel with our new seats. The wood is elm:

 

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Any ideas or previous projects someone could point out would be great. 

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:) we do find a lot of peanut shells in seats actually, especially at Camden Yards for some reason. Lots of gum too but only on the plastic seats...guess it falls off the wood eventually.

Anyway, we have a lot more vintage legs we could use, and even bolts...it's just the wood. Maybe it's just a simple technique of beating up the seat a bit then using some sort of dye stain? I did find this video:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5ygOsqYsOY

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Boiled linseed oil and a day of direct sunglight also gives light woods an amber tone and might look less fake than spraying a dye or toner.  Getting the scratches should be easy.   You can also easily do painted effects.  Wipe on some diluted green latex paint (like the color of Wrigley field's scorebard), let it dry, and sand it back and the seat will look like it was painted and the paint wore off.  Sand it off a little more where a butt goes and it is even more authentic. 

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Thanks for the tips! We have some new boards that were cut incorrectly I might try this on. I also took your BLO idea and looked around...found an article Marc did on a bartop...although food /spills aren't a concern here. (We also tell customers these really can't be used outside, because the wood will rot eventually). 

 

Love your idea of the painted effects. We actually have wood from Baltimore Memorial that we sell with generic unrestored orange legs from a racetrack, which customers can paint. On some you can see at least 4 different layers of paint. These aren't as popular, however. 

 

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Thanks for the tips! We have some new boards that were cut incorrectly I might try this on. I also took your BLO idea and looked around...found an article Marc did on a bartop...although food /spills aren't a concern here. (We also tell customers these really can't be used outside, because the wood will rot eventually). 

 

Love your idea of the painted effects. We actually have wood from Baltimore Memorial that we sell with generic unrestored orange legs from a racetrack, which customers can paint. On some you can see at least 4 different layers of paint. These aren't as popular, however. 

 

15878934.jpg

 

If you use BLO, you can always add a top coat that is more durable.  Something polyurethane or water base if you are hand applying or lacquer if you are spraying.  You just need to make sure the BLO is dry first.  wipe off the excess after applying and waiting a day or two should be enough, as long as you are not heavy handed. 

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When my wife and I visited Fenway a few years ago I was amused by the copious amount of paint on the seats.  Nary a bolt head to be found...nor even the trace of a bump...they disappeared decades ago I suppose.  The gaps between the slats were nearly bridged.  There were so many layers the seats almost had a spongy feel.  The backs of your legs stuck to them in the moist July air.  It gave them a definite charm, though.  Very cool experience for me.

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Just curious why you chose elm for the seats?  Do you have a good source for it?  I really like elm, its just that red oak or ash look similar and are more commercially available, as far as I know.   I can only get it from a local mill (basically a guy who processes yard trees), the retailers around here do not stock it. 

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Just curious why you chose elm for the seats?  Do you have a good source for it?  I really like elm, its just that red oak or ash look similar and are more commercially available, as far as I know.   I can only get it from a local mill (basically a guy who processes yard trees), the retailers around here do not stock it. 

You're right. Most of the seats we have are elm, used to get the nice curvature in the wood. We're just now transitioning into ash because you can't really get elm anymore like you said. Almost all of the used wood we have though seems to be elm. We tried stripping down some of the old Baltimore wood but ran into problems with the wood losing its correct curvature after the process, making them impossible to assemble. We're only recently started to manufacture these new seats...and they'll be made of ash, which is good enough. 

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When my wife and I visited Fenway a few years ago I was amused by the copious amount of paint on the seats.  Nary a bolt head to be found...nor even the trace of a bump...they disappeared decades ago I suppose.  The gaps between the slats were nearly bridged.  There were so many layers the seats almost had a spongy feel.  The backs of your legs stuck to them in the moist July air.  It gave them a definite charm, though.  Very cool experience for me.

Fenway is definitely our Favorite park...the Red Sox are a real pleasure to work with. We've been removing seats from there for about 6 years now. The painstaking measures they go through to keep the old "authentic" feel of the stadium is amazing. 

 

I know exactly what you mean with the wood seats, too! You can see huge circular marks on some of the seats where the paint was ripped off from having to kick out the bolts. In some cases it takes the wood with it. At Fenway they actually decided to keep the original wood seats, which were made of these long unwieldy boards threaded through the entire row of seat legs. They shipped everything to Michigan to be stripped down and repainted, as well as having the legs restored with new paints. (Shea had to do the same thing to get the lead off their legs actually, too.) Then they sent everything back and reassembled using the same parts. 

 

We've actually got a bunch of the wood we're storing for Fenway...we'll take any broken ones and make them into these badboys:

Demhq.jpg

 

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If you use BLO, you can always add a top coat that is more durable.  Something polyurethane or water base if you are hand applying or lacquer if you are spraying.  You just need to make sure the BLO is dry first.  wipe off the excess after applying and waiting a day or two should be enough, as long as you are not heavy handed. 

We'd be doing these by hand. I'm about to head to Walmart and pick up some of this BLO, give it a shot. (sunny day today). Would this Watco stuff I see Marc using in some of his videos be an all-in-one option? Seems it's made of BLO and has a top coat property to it,unless I'm misunderstanding the application. Really appreciate the tips. 

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We'd be doing these by hand. I'm about to head to Walmart and pick up some of this BLO, give it a shot. (sunny day today). Would this Watco stuff I see Marc using in some of his videos be an all-in-one option? Seems it's made of BLO and has a top coat property to it,unless I'm misunderstanding the application. Really appreciate the tips. 

 

Yes, you can give that a try to.  BLO is cheap and readily available and because you don't have a top coat reflecting the sun's rays, it might darken a little more quickly than it will after you apply the top coat (but that is really just a guess on my part).    I really don't know how long it will take to get darker, if you do some internet searches you might find some expirements.  But I do think you will see a difference after a day or two of sun light. 

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Right you are...was only $8 for a can. The guy at the store recommended mixing it with paint thinner 50/50, so it dries faster. Then he also talked about applying some shoe polish to the wood and scraping it off with a toothbrush so who knows. Just going to try the BLO for now. 

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Tip: don't take any advice from "the guy at the store" if that store is Walmart.  Or Home Depot.  Or Lowes.  Or anywhere other than a woodworking store.  And then take all of their advice with an ocean of salt.

 

I'd use mineral spirits if you want to dilute the BLO.  It will soak in deeper and "dry" faster, but it will still take the same amount of time to cure.  BLO takes forever to cure completely.  I'm talking weeks.

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Also be careful how much BLO you put on. Some people drench to stuff on, that is not really necessary, especially if you are going to top coat. get a rag damp, squeeze out the excess, and lightly buff onto the wood. the color will darken without a lot of the stuff. If you put too much on yes it might "weep" (where you see oil coming out of the pores) for days or even weeks.

I don't know if you need to dilute it. Like Eric said it does not really dry faster.... the mineral spirits will dry faster but spirits do not contain anything that make the oil dry/cure faster. Obviously you are diluting it, so all else equal you will have the tendancy to put less oil on, so maybe that is a good thing.

I have top coated projects with shellac, poly and lacquer a day or two after applying BLO and have not had a problem. If it feels dry to the touch, is not weeping oil out of the pores, is not sticky, etc, you are probably good to go.

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Thank you both...I think I'm going to do a few tests with diluting it and not. I think I'll skip on the shoe polish test, heh.

For tonight I just applied a little bit of the BLO to one side of this board for a quick test. You can see the difference in the photo. Hoping for sun tomorrow to give it a chance to get darker. Forgot to use gloves and got a bit on my hand...dumb mistake there. 

7gSTv.jpg

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BLO is harmless, it's just gross.  Some people like the smell of it.  I hate it.

 

One more warning about BLO...it'll turn white woods like maple or pine quite yellow.  Not a pleasant "amber" color, but yellow.  Not banana yellow, but more like what a pasty, jaundiced, half-dead alcoholic dude looks like.  It's ugly, is what I'm tryin' to say.

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Don't hold back there Kiki, tell us what you really think of BLO  ;)

 

I'm still a fan, regardless.  On a piece that doesn't need much protection built of darker wood...nothing brings out the richness like BLO.  Walnut drenched in it...gorgeous.

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For giving the wood an aged look, consider applying vinegar to the raw wood and exposing it to sunlight. Soak a pad of steel wool in the vinegar for a few hours first to get a darker tone. Be sure to test on each wood species, as they all seem to react differently. I've done this on pine and sealed it within 24 hours to get a nice mild brown. Letting it remain unsealed for 3 days (and presoaking the steel wool longer) gave me a deep, rich brown on pine. Tried it on some red oak and got a purplish black almost instantly.

I've heard that lye or TSP cleaner gives a bleached look, almost like driftwood.

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For giving the wood an aged look, consider applying vinegar to the raw wood and exposing it to sunlight. Soak a pad of steel wool in the vinegar for a few hours first to get a darker tone. Be sure to test on each wood species, as they all seem to react differently. I've done this on pine and sealed it within 24 hours to get a nice mild brown. Letting it remain unsealed for 3 days (and presoaking the steel wool longer) gave me a deep, rich brown on pine. Tried it on some red oak and got a purplish black almost instantly.

I've heard that lye or TSP cleaner gives a bleached look, almost like driftwood.

Thanks for the tip...might try this.

 

So far the BOL looks good...maybe I didn't apply enough though because it doesn't seem to be getting any darker. Thinking I might try this vinegar technique the maybe some watco

 

Also found a guy who glazes the seats to give them an old look, but it seems like more contrast is the opposite of what I want. 

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Well...the vinegar certainly changes the smell. Have to see how the sun does. It's not getting nearly dark enough though but it definitely doesn't look as new. The steel wool just left the wood a bit fuzzy to the touch

 

Also for the hell of it I tried the shoe polish thing since I don't have proper wax:

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Hhmmmm.. I'd call the one with shoe polish more of an 'antique' look. The vinegar and steel looks like it was stored in a barn for several years. A leaky barn. Honestly, based on my experience with vinegar and steel on oak, I'm surprised to see it so bleached. How long did you soak the steel wool in the vinegar?

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