A Burning Issue

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john verge
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A Burning Issue

Sat May 14, 2016 4:36 pm

I'm building a house and the siding will be Haida Gwaii ( formerly Queen Charlotte Islands in BC Canada) grown red cedar. I would really like to burn the wood for a finish (look) as well as a preserving method. I saw a japanese cabinet maker with a branding tool red hot sliding it up a board revealing a thoroughly torched surface. Following the burning came the brushing with some crazy natural bristle tool and the effect was really nice. I also watched a video of some japanese daiku i assume, lashing together three boards and standing them on end over a fire box. The boards were 8' or so and the flames chimneed ( cool word i thought), out the top then they reversed the end thus creating the same fire torch effect. After laughing like hell because it looked quite comical, i realized after 2or 3 minutes they had created an amazing finish. Any one have experience with the burning method for finishing boards? Thanks, John.
Marc
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Re: A Burning Issue

Sun May 15, 2016 2:44 am

I have no experience with this technique, but I came across a video that may be helpful.

Japanese technique of preserving/antiquing wood "Shou-sugi-ban Yakisugi 焼き杉"

I like the look. :)

But I wonder whether the degree of torching in the above video is enough to prevent the wood from decay....
Last edited by Marc on Mon May 16, 2016 2:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
djwong
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Re: A Burning Issue

Sun May 15, 2016 2:51 am

Have you tried searching for "shou sugi ban", or "yakisugi", or 焼杉板? Looks like you can order pre-manufactured boards in North America from several outfits.

I have seen this treatment on older buildings and outdoor fences, in Nara, Japan. The applications I saw where heavily charred. I do not think the boards were wire brushed.
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john verge
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Re: A Burning Issue

Sun May 15, 2016 3:37 pm

Initially we had hoped for even graying of the cedar boards but they tend to weather sort of all over the map with no even consistency and thats ok, we're not that house proud. Then i learned of iron sulfite which goes to work on fungus etc and does allow for more even weathering( no experience here i'm afraid). Finally the charring method, the heavy charring doesn't really appeal to me but a lighter brushed approach i feel looks good. Saw some guys on the net using a big propane torch which worked well. The Japanese method is just so unique but, i guess i shouldn't be too surprised by that. Thanks for jumping in will post some pics if i go with the charring.
simonZARADZKI
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Re: A Burning Issue

Tue May 17, 2016 8:04 am

I tried the japanese way this winter and it worked quite well. Kite simple, and you can actualy have different kinds of finishes depending on how long you burn it.
Why don t you try whith one meter long sacrifice boards.
It was quite fun!
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john verge
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Re: A Burning Issue

Wed May 25, 2016 12:09 am

Thanks for the feed back. Will definitely attempt some test pieces and will post up just for fun.

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