Shau Sugi Ban

[Barklessdog]

It would be cool to try this on a bass?

Certianly would be a lot of fun like raku?





Certianly would love to do it to a fence?

[Barklessdog]

Everyone is doing it, it's on fire! Seriously

I wish I wood have known this before I put in my last fence- the posts rotted.





https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/t-magazine/shou-sugi-ban.html

[4stringer77]

Roasted necks are already a common practice but I think that method is more precisely controlled than an open propane flame. Pat Wilkins is a builder that does roasting or baking, necks as well as bodies I believe. Perhaps you could take some roasted Ash and achieve the same stained look as the videos you posted.

[Granny Gremlin]

Roasting is not the same as (surface) burning tho.  Roasting would remove much more moisture content for example.

[Dave W]

What's next? Deep fried in lard?

[Barklessdog]

What's interesting about the technique is cedar would last at least 80 years!

The water table is really high in our yard and most of the fence posts rotted after 12 years.

Or do your deck this way?

The thing is cedar has become really pricey now.

[Pilgrim]

Might be interesting to research and find out if this is unique to cedar or if it works on other wood species as well.  Between the burning and the asphalt coating I'd have to think it would extend the service life of the wood.

[Barklessdog]

It's a counterintuitive but ingenious idea: heating wood to render it fireproof. If you've ever tried to rekindle a campfire using burnt logs, you get the idea. The combustion also neutralizes the cellulose in the wood — the carbohydrates that termites, fungus and bacteria love — making it undesirable to pests and resistant to rot. The resulting charcoal layer repels water and prevents sun damage as well. By some estimates, boards that have undergone this process can last 80 years or more, but Japan's Buddhist Horyuji Temple in Nara prefecture, whose five-story pagoda is one of the world's oldest extant wooden structures, has been around for much longer. Initially built in A.D. 607, the pagoda caught fire and was rebuilt in 711 using shou sugi ban.

It works on other wood, but I read it works best on softer open grain woods.