These looks great. Did you use kiln dried lumber? Seems like it might be expensive unless the 2x4s are green. I would be worried about them cracking and splitting. Does the burning stop this from happening?
Yes it was kiln dried prime 2x4. Like a dollar more than the other 2x4s next to it. Torching and staining and putting a few coats of urethane is going to keep these solid as ever
@@AMGfinishes I've heard that Awlbrite Plus is the ONLY finish that will protect from UV and moisture. I've never used it. If anyone in the comments is familiar I'd love to know a 1st hand account
@@Jo-xg6rk yeah that seems to be the favorite. I got the stain called red barn by minwax. Oil based. I’m actually raffling it tomorrow for Memorial Day.
To my knowledge water base is fine but oil stain does a much better job of actually staining the wood and giving it color. Oil will also last longer and more durable. Since this exterior use I went with oil based stain and urethane
No I used prime KD. Pressure treated wouldn’t burn that clean and won’t accept the stain as well. It’s getting burned, stained, and coated with urethane. You won’t be needing PT at that point lmao
I had the same thought. I wouldn’t use PT. Won’t burn well. Won’t accept stain well either. The burning, oil Staining and AT LEAST 2 coats of urethane is more than enough for this bench to last decades. Probably just put a fresh coat of poly every couple years if it starts to weather
The first one I built I just used the same construction screws. Then I filled with wood filler. Definitely visible. Not terribly ugly though. Then I learned on the next ones to use the fine finish screw heads to make the hole as small as possible. Just have to use a longer finish screw (not the 1-1/2) used for other parts of the video. Great question
I use this technigue and the wire brushing with colored dye for woodwork. I read that shou sugi ban is in fact a mistranslation, but "sugi" means cypress wood specifically. So it's tough to evn call this technique either one tbh.
@@damiondifranco2967 hey, as long as someone can RU-vid a name to figure out how to do it themselves hahaha. Better than “Smokey burnt wood color stain design” 😂😂
@@damiondifranco2967 so "yaki" means "burnt", "grilled" or "roasted" (same "yaki" as in yakitori = grilled chicken skewers, teriyaki = "shiny grilled", etc.). Japanese characters originally were imported from China, and almost all have at least two pronunciations, one of which is the Japanese prounuciation (in this case yaki) and the other the "chinese" one -which you can think of as the original Chinese word spoken as if it were Japanese. In this case the "chinese" reading of yaki is shou - or shāo in mandarin chinese, which is the same character as shu in shumai, steamed dumplings - even though they're steamed and not grilled…. "Sugi" though is the japanese pronunciation of Cedar, and it's very weird to combine both japanese and chinese pronunciations of different characters in the same word. It'd be a bit like mixing up "lift/elevator" and "biscuit/cookies" in the same sentence. And finally "ban" means "board", but again it's the chinese reading whereas the japanese reading would be "ita". So I'm not saying "shou sugi ban" is totally wrong, but the fact that it mixes both pronunciation; and also as far as I know isn't used locally here in Japan, makes me think it should probably be avoided.
Great vid! I'm trying out a similar project using Shou Sugi Ban. Since this is my first time, I'm using pieces of wood taken from the wood that I plan on using for the project and practicing with them. I can get a pretty consistent burn (light burn and a little heavier burn) but I've noticed that I'm getting yellow (sap?) spots developing after the burn. Does this mean that the "kiln dried" wood that I bought isn't really kiln dried. I've watched numerous videos on this technique and none of them show or mention yellow spots developing after the burn. Maybe I should try some wood from another store.
@@robnfl I’m in a few different fb groups that mentioned having that problem but I don’t remember the answer tbh. I didn’t run into that problem when I did these.
Water. Watched a video where it said to spray the wood to prevent cupping. I think it’s more for thinner boards like 1x4. I didn’t see any difference between spraying vs not-spraying
The process of burning wood is really useful. BUT, just burning would does not make it "Shou Sugi Ban". 焼杉板 the literal translation is "Burned Cedar Board". So to be Shou Sugi Ban, it has to be cedar. Otherwise, you're just burning wood for the purpose of preserving it. In Japan if you burn other wood, it's just burned wood. Also your pronunciation of "BAN" (like Band without the D) is incorrect. It's pronounced more like Bon in Bon Voyage. But nice benches. (But please don't call this shou sugi ban for this burning technique. It's like calling grape juice, wine.) Scott from Japan
lol. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but wine is pretty much fermented grape juice lol the art of preserving wood by burning it can be referred to as Shou Sugi Ban since when you look it up online it doesn’t specify cedar wood. So you mean to tell me the only wood the Japanese ever used building things and burning it to help preserve it was cedar? Highly doubt that
@@ivorycastle7097 Your analogy doesn't work. It would be like saying fermenting anything to alcohol is therefore "wine". If we ferment barely and hops, we would never refer to that as wine, just because it used the same technique, nor whisky. The origin of Japanese burning wood to preserve it (cedar) was born of a lack of the preferred building material -- driftwood. Some clever person realized that burning wood preserved it in a similarly resistant way that driftwood was. The technique skyrocketed in buildings, because it was resistant to burning (even more than being resistant to pests, which is why you don't see burned wood INSIDE 800+ year old temples. Only on external cladding. The ONLY material used for that is cedar. And the term Shou Sugi Ban is used exclusively in Japan for the purpose of resisting fire in their highly wooden structures. Interestingly, the technique was abandoned in Japan around 100 years ago. No one uses it today, save for restoring something original, or mimicing it as a novelty as the "lost art" that it has become. Can you find a modern building with it? Yes. Is it done for the purpose of preserving the wood? Not really, more for visual appeal. the Japanese word "Yakisugi" is the traditional form of the word, and again specifically states "cedar" (Sugi). Also realize, sugi is incredibly sustainable, and the vast majority of trees growing through Japan are Sugi (Japanese Red cedar). So yes, the term is being used incorrectly for just burning wood to preserve it.
I've never seen the staining of this technique. Other than burned lumber, I've never seen this with mine own eyes before. Now that you have shown me this staining technique I'll sure be trying it. If you could balance your van on top of one of these , I'm sure it would hold it for years to come. Years ago we were putting up a building with trusses my grandfather made. A feller with a square body Chevrolet 4x4 drove up and was making fun of the trusses. Pop said the building would hold his truck. After a bunch of BS'sing and bets we put up decking where his tires would sit. The crane operator set his truck up there. The bet was that if it fell thru Pop had to buy the totaled truck , if it healed up Pop got the truck. Pop drove that truck home that evening.
😂😂😂😂😂😂 damn that would’ve been awesome on camera hahah. But yes I say that to people all the time this could hold a car all day. It’s basically built similar to a header for a window/door.
I've done the fractal wood burning but not the type you used here. Going to try it out but start small making candle holders and the like. Really nice work on the benches and video. I think I like the red tone best but...hard to pick a favorite.
Yes so true. I was stuck between my favorite. I was red a first then started leaning towards the grey/blue because of the uniqueness and the patterns on top of the bench. Looks like a wave type of thing. So much fun
Honestly this was more work than I originally anticipated. With the furniture market there’s no way you can’t get minimum $300 for a bench (with the torch,stain and urethane) And they’ll last decades unlike new furniture.
@@brodyhale5794 it’s so worth it. I just put out the video for my raffle. I did $10 and have 16 tickets sold so far. It’s been about 2-3 hours since posting
