Advice on weathering machined timber-dowel to get a more natural/weathered effect for a staff

[Starganderfish]

Hoping for some advice.
Working on a prop replica Bo Staff. In many TV, Movies, Cartoons etc these are portrayed with weathering, splitting or cracking - that "natural wood" effect, rather than the machined, clean wood you get from wooden dowels or rods.

Can anyone suggest an easy way to mimic this effect?
Through soaking in water or other liquid, repeated heating and cooling, wetting and drying etc?
I can of course try and locate an actual piece of natural wood and carve it into a staff, but that would be difficult, time-consuming and it would be awesome to be able to find an easier short-cut.
Would also be useful for future projects such as wizards staffs etc.

 

[joberg]

I use ammonia + Dux Caustic Soda. No need to say that those two combined make for a very potent and hazardous product.
Do it outside; protective clothing + heavy rubber gloves + goggles + respirator. Take a pail and a heavy non-plastic brush (plastic will melt) and douse/brush your dowel with it. Before hand, you could take a rotary steel brush, affixed to your drill, and make grooves and cracks into your wood to imitate a real branch. After those two steps, light sanding (180) and liquid stain (color your choice).
The dousing/brushing can be repeated until you're satisfied with the look.

 

[Sukie]

I'm actually attempting this also, here is my first attempt using a sharpened flathead screwdriver, hacksaw blade and Ball peen hammer. Finish is acrylic paint and wash with a little sharpie here and there. The hardest part was embracing my mistakes, I find that they give it a older used look. Like I said for a first attempt I think it turned out pretty good. Good luck

 

[Starganderfish]

I use ammonia + Dux Caustic Soda. No need to say that those two combined make for a very potent and hazardous product.
Do it outside; protective clothing + heavy rubber gloves + goggles + respirator. Take a pail and a heavy non-plastic brush (plastic will melt) and douse/brush your dowel with it. Before hand, you could take a rotary steel brush, affixed to your drill, and make grooves and cracks into your wood to imitate a real branch. After those two steps, light sanding (180) and liquid stain (color your choice).
The dousing/brushing can be repeated until you're satisfied with the look.

Oh interesting, Sodium Hydroxide can have a caustic effect on organic matter so should help dissolve it a bit. The grooves and cracks added beforehand would let the mixture seep into the wood and increase the effect.
Then, it sounds like ammonia acts as a dye on timber, darkening the appearance and enhancing the grain through a process known as "ammonia fuming".
That's awesome and I think I understand how the two could work together to produce an interesting effect.
Is the process relatively quick or should I soak the timber in the solution for hours/days/weeks?

I'm actually attempting this also, here is my first attempt using a sharpened flathead screwdriver, hacksaw blade and Ball peen hammer. Finish is acrylic paint and wash with a little sharpie here and there. The hardest part was embracing my mistakes, I find that they give it a older used look. Like I said for a first attempt I think it turned out pretty good. Good luck

Thanks for this. It looks very cool.
I'm going to end up with a few small off-cuts when I trim the dowel to size, so I'll do some experiments with physically stressing the wood with hammer blows, steel brushes and cuts from saws and chisels, and then see how it reacts to the solution joberg suggested.

 

[joberg]

^^
The process is really quick; you'll see change in colors right away (after the wood dries). No need to soak it for hours
Try to use oak, not a supper dense wood. It'll take more soaking for longer for denser wood.