Technical Anyone ever “char” wood for decorative purposes?

Was thinking of trying it for the bed on my ‘32 Dodge. I’m not speaking of a solid char. But kinda flame like patterns the length of each plank.
Then put some clear wood protectant over it, to preserve things.
Everything I found on Google was being done with a soldering iron, that’s not what I’m after, I’m thinking low heat propane bottle torch.
Thanks.

 

I have seen folks use a propane weed burner.
Best effect will be in choosing the grain and type of wood. Do a few test on different breeds and see what flips your minnow.

 

I have a weed burner as well.
Makes “poofy” flame when the handle isn’t squeezed, might be the right approach and not real aggressive.
Acetylene is too pricey just to try!
Thanks.

 

Look up wood working on u-tube pyro something. They do it all the time using a simple benzomatic torch.

Pat

 

I do on request for some of my axes I do. It's easy. Just make sure there are no comtaminants in and/or on the wood. I use a MAPP gas torch.

 

I did that for the side boards on the Studebaker ( actually my wife did )I had some used Southern Yellow pine tongue and groove 3/4boards. We pressure washed them and used a da to knock the grain down and she used a propane torch to color them. In the photo they have aged about 3 years. No stain or sealer added.

 

@Budget36, here's a suggestion. Use heat treated wood rather than kiln dried. It is a more expensive than kiln dried but used in a truck bed, it's a much better option. Kiln dried doesn't remove all the moisture from the wood, while heat treated wood is subjected to much higher temperatures in the drying process. Heat treated is lighter than the kiln dried and is less susceptible to insects and rot. Heat treated wood usually becomes darker than kiln dried. There was no stain applied to the wood in the pictures below.

 

Nothing looks better than a natural wood finish.

 

I burn wood all the time with my laser . For decorative purposes you can't beat the accurateness. I know this isn't what you're looking for... just showing off.

 

Sound like what was done a lot in the 70s. It was something to bring out the natural grain of the wood. It could be done well, but most of the time it looked pretty low end hobby due to the wood used and the care in keeping it even.


This video shows a number of levels to go through, and how it can look good.
This channel came up and it has other more in depth videos of this.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfdV031I_F0

Note, "Anyone ever" is a regional thing I guess, but is not great grammar. Somebody somewhere has done just about everything. It's just a pet peeve of mine. Try "Have you" to personalize it to your audience, or "Tell me about" to start.

 

This is the bench top for my Atlas bench lathe. It's a section of glue lam, and the finish is mineral oil oveer the toasted wood surface. I used one of those Harbor Freight weed burners, and just toasted it until I liked the look. Being it's a bench top for a metal lathe, and there's a good chance of getting it oiled routinely in use, I figured that the mineral oil rubbed in would be a good finish.

 

Yes, I've used a propane torch & chase the grain. It accentuates the wood grain & gives a bit more "character". It also works well with cheaper lumber like pine too. If you go to much give it a quick sand.
When done you can treat it w Boiled Linseed oil cut with a little mineral spirits. I've even seen folks use old motor oil.

 

I think a similar technique is sometimes used for finishing guitar bodies. You might want to check some of the luthier and guitar restoration websites and videos.

 

I have seen a lot of burned wood. Mostly on pine boards. It does bring out grain, but I think it looks cheap. Put a good oak or ash bed in your truck with a nice finish on it and skip the wood burning.

 

Pressure treating doesn't stop rot or sun or water damage , old cca did but they banned it , if you specify " ground contact" it's a bit better .

 

this was a must have , we burned the wood with a torch, then wire brush the wood , and varnish.. we'd mAKE TWO OUT OF ONE SPOOL, put bean bags for seats... big green wine bottle in the center with candle wax running down the sides... add a stereo and album wall unit out of cinder block and burnt wood planks, some doors and hindricks posters, pull the door off and hang beads and a tapestry ceiling ... peace,... make love not war....

 

Look up "shou sugi ban" on the internet.

 

Did it on the floor of my old 32 delivery. Also whacked the floor with some chain to beat it up a little.

 

(in yearly order from my drawing book: 1968)

Hello,

When we were first living in our small 600 sq ft. apartment, we rented it empty. So, we had to be creative with our spending on furniture. It seemed like making furniture would be so much less than buying store bought stuff. There was one store we would have purchased everything, but it was way out of our price range. (Frank Bros in LB)

One of the main things we had was a cool stereo components and giant speakers. So, we had to have a sturdy display case and shelving for the separate parts. So, we scoured the old scrapyards near our old Westside of Long Beach house, close to the industrial areas. We found this long plank, and it had metal bands around the ends. We were told it was a ocean going large ship, Hatch cover. They were in different sizes and fairly heavy. Most had gouges and scratches on the surface and some had a coating on it.
About 12 feet long x 14” wide
The above art was drawn because we did not have enough money to buy ready made tables and shelves for our stereo and record player. I drew these designs, first, before we went out scouring the old marine scrap yards in Wilmington, near Lions Dragstrip. The long hatch cover(s) fit in the back of the 1965 El Camino like a long, surfboard and with a few red flags, we were legal.

The easiest shelf to use was a long hatch board cover, a smaller one was used on top for the record player. They were all mounted on large blocks of concrete blocks donated from the local construction site where my friend worked.
6 feet long x 3 feet wide
Finally, I cut up a larger, wider cover to make an square corner end table. (including making a new hole and attaching the other metal band on the square table top.) The big blocks of a wood were the scraps from rafter beams for wide openings. We decided that one long hatch cover and one small one was better than three small table builds for the stereo receiver, record player and tape player.
(the other two fit on the floor of the el camino's bed)

Jnaki

Several hours of scraping and sanding, then, a small propane torch lightly burnished the surface. A little more sanding made it look great. Then, using a resin/catalyst combo and a steady paint brush did the job of leaving a protective layer on top of the hatch covers. It was like I was making finished surfboards with the satin gloss finish that was a protective surface, too.

It paid off being a self sufficient surfer with plenty of hours of surfboard repair and construction.
Wa---lah--- An end table for the corner and two hatch covers for our stereo and record player.
My wife made three giant pillows and those were on both sides of the small square corner table for our B/W TV.

(LP records, huge soft pillows, nice speakers, fun small dog…all the makings of a great first apartment)


The plastic 5 sided lamp got as far as small, wire clamps in the holes. It was a nightmare to align all of the pieces and to get them all to stay in a square box shape.

The steel “I” beam supports for any table got as far as the automobile scrap yard and the weight of each one. They were too expensive and too heavy. Finally, the triangular shaped wooden supports did work, but I did not want to screw them into the bottom of the table size, hatch cover for stability, so they met the firewood stack.

With little money, ideas that worked and some that didn’t made life a challenge for the newly wed, cash poor, couple. But, the rent on a one bedroom apartment…it was our first, was ok. But our poor 65 El Camino and 62 Corvair had to be parked outside and took the brunt of the So Cal weather. (salt air, fog, rain, wind, and flying sand/dirt) until we could get access to the small garage. YRMV

 

I used a propane wood burner torch from Harbor Freight to darken the oak plank kit I bought from Mack’s. Then treated all sides of each plank with 2 liberal coats of teak oil. Here is a picture of the planks before I applied teak oil.

 

and the finished pic???

 

I very often use a handheld propane torch to slightly darken the grain of wood that I'm staining. It really helps the grain show up. It's pretty easy, just make sure you practice on an unseen area or some scrap.

 

I made an American flag out of scrap pallet wood and colored the canton of the flag using the Shou sugi ban method. Make sure you wire brush off the char before applying the teak oil.

 

I did a piece of furniture, took miscellaneous pieces of metal and burned around them.

 

I remember this as being popular in junior high shop class. Of course back then we had to rub the boards together real fast to generate enough heat to char them.

 

, and it only made a little chunk, because they were all saplings back then!

 

So, I understand the comments of “nothing looks better than natural wood”. All good.
But not ever seeing this in a bed of a PU, I did recall the county fairs my folks would take us too. The wood signs folks would buy, had a nice charred look, not sure if it was done before or after “Tge smiths live here”, etc.

I just liked what I saw hanging up.

I’ve looked into all the reply “how tos, and how I did it” as well.
I’ll get some cuts and give it a go, before I put flame to actual wood.

 

My wife's name is Char, her maiden name was Wood...So I guess I'm experienced in a way.

 

I did the frame of my pine water bed in 1980 and it was far out man

I used a Oxy act torch and sprayed it with some clear lacquer when I did the finsh on my moms China cabinet with a Binks model 7

 

I have used a propane torch to tiger stripe gun stocks.