Distressing - lots of small, dark defects

I am working on a cabinet that hopes to match another piece in a client's house. The old piece is an older Drexel Heritage sideboard in knotty pine with lots of small distressing marks, along with larger rasp marks and knife slashes. I'm more accustomed to worm holes in small groupings, but not something that covers larger areas with scratches. The dark marks looks like light scratches.

Do you have a method to create light scratches like this (see attached pics)?

I tried several denting apparatus (hammers, nails, screws, bolts) but the marks were too blunt and not scratch-like. Dragging a nail followed by sanding gets closer. What would you use?

The piece I'm making is knotty soft maple. I'm planning on dying the wood to match the color and then glazing to get the dark edges and fill in the defects. The full finish schedule will be something like: 1lb shellac - alcohol dye - 1lb shellac - dark brown glaze, wipe off excess - multiple lacquer topcoats.

Thanks for any ideas you have in creating this scratched up finish.
ryan

Sand it. Set in on the ground in some gravel, step on it. Mill it like normal without a final sanding except to smooth rasp and knife marks.

Cool idea! I dropped a board in the garage gravel, stepped on it, and took a look. The road gravel is a little too big, but the concept is great. We have some smaller size sand that might just do the trick. Thanks for the idea.

We went through a period where everyone was wanting distressed. We got real creative. It can be therapeutic too!

Another idea is to crush some glass, pick it up on a lint roller and use that. That will make those fine little marks that stand out with glazing.

I once used a heavy tow chain thrown with gusto to distress a piece I made for my sister. It turned out pretty good. I'll have to remember the gravel trick.

I've had good luck with chains. Hey, about your schedule... Dye after the shellac washcoat? I use alcohol dyes too, but why would you do it after your wash coat?

Good question about the dye. When I applied alcohol dye on the soft (big leaf, western) maple, it was very blotchy. The client wants knots, and they soak up a lot more dye than the other area. The boards I have also have two colors - almost like sap- and heart- wood. There are primarily white boards and primarily red boards. The white ones soak up the dye differently than the red ones. I'd like to have a fairly consistent color in the end.

When I tried to even it out, I couldn't get there with just dye. Using water (instead of alcohol) definitely helped make things more even, but it didn't get me all the way there.

When doing some samples, one method to combat the uneven dye absorption that worked for me was to do a light coat of shellac. It seemed to seal the end-grain features just enough to even out the dye. I thought about spraying the dye, but didn't get around to trying it yet.

What other methods are there to even out blotchy woods?

Well, you've got to spray it. It's the only way to sneak up on the color you want without soaking the wood. I NEVER wipe dye on a blotchy wood, because if you flood the wood, the blotch areas will absorb more, creating the problem you're trying to avoid! By spraying, you are accurately giving the ENTIRE surface the same exact amount of dye - blotch no more. I find when I spray dye, I never have an evenness problem, but I use Mohawk M520 series which are Acetone based dyes. Acetone evaporates VERY quickly which is good because you can recoat the piece in about 5 minutes. On the other hand, when I'm doing repair work and have to match existing colors, I wipe the dye on, but I cut it in half with Denatured Alcohol. That really slows the drying down, and allows me more working time. You can cut an Acetone dye with Acetone or DNA, whichever best suits your application.