Charring a Guitar Top Flaming a Flame Maple Top Scorched Luthier Project

Inside the Luthier's Shop with BigDGuitars.com. Always wanted to do this. Took a torch to a flame maple top to get a scorched effect. Pretty cool effect will try this again, please be careful if you try this at home.

[@timhallas4275]

Here is a helpful hint. One of the biggest problems with using a basic plumbers torch is the small diameter of the flame. It becomes difficult to control the depth of the burn and the evenness of the burn pattern. They have an adapter for these types of torches that spreads out the flame to as wide as 5 inches. It's kind of like the difference between painting a wall with a 1/2in brush or a 5 in brush. The charring will be more even and you will have far more control.

[@timhallas4275]

@carmineredd that makes no sense.

[@paulthegeek]

Those cracks are awesome, IMO. They add a lovely rustic character to the finish.

[@shantahsieh4833]

woodprix is nice for that.

[@jennyrawler5410]

Best plans to me. Thank you Shanta

[@rorymccallum7578]

That looks incredible. I really love how rustic it looks. Absolutely gorgeous

[@angrytroll27]

so you'll need propane and propane accessories? :P

[@jasonm456]

Dang it Bobby!

[@F1DesignUS]

At least it is not Butane....the bastard gas!

[@ChallisVenstra]

Taste the meat, not the heat!

[@ianmeadows3527]

Lol. Yes!

[@randymiles904]

I want to try this, but use a red dye, and then clear over it. Kind of a variation of the blood red sandblasted top you see sometimes. Awesome video man. Thanks for sharing.

[@rustyaxelrod]

I like it. You could call it the “whiskey barrel Tele”. I’ve watched many of your videos and seen some really cool ones. I’m no guitar expert but I do some furniture work and if I could, I’d like to suggest maybe, sometimes, you stop sanding just a little bit sooner. I know the surface texture is important, especially on something high gloss, but in several videos I’m thinking man, that’s nice and then you continue to sand and end up with something more plain and less...interesting. I suspect you are looking at the contrast and trying to maximize it but sometimes it just washes out with continued sanding. Some of that may be just a camera/video thing also I guess. Anyway, I’m not trying to be a jerk, just trying to help a brother out.

[@pamcarr4003]

Very interesting. Looks pretty good. Thanks for sharing this technique.

[@TavaresProject]

that looks fantastic. You do some amazing work!!!!! love watching you vids

[@blackfender100]

That is so cool.beautiful finish on the guitar I'll have to give it a try. thanks for posting.

[@gypsijo]

super kool ! I love a Drum Kit with that look! 🤩

[@gypsijo]

& I bet this smells awesome😁

[@douglas71322]

Very nice finish. Thinking about appling it to my new les paul building. Do you have information about any loss on sound quality after using this technique? Thx a lot.

[@bigdguitars]

Douglas S haha... If I make any more tone wood vids I may get the rath of the interwebs on me. something along the lines of baked maple.

[@MrUltracoin]

3:33 What was the function of claming it on the bandsaw?

[@FinkPloyd504]

I think to make it straight and expose any warping

[@holstorrsceadus1990]

Honestly, that crack looks kinda good with the char. Gives it an antiqued feel.

[@krisztian76]

At 4:25 it seems that the top is cracked on the bottom left of the video. I think that you dried the top with the fire, and the wood should lose the water. Can it have a bad influance for the sound?

[@TheMusicalMedic]

After Charring it, use water to lift the grain. It will give it some life.

[@T1374]

That looks awesome. How do you keep the plastic binding from burning?

[@bigdguitars]

No plastic. Just wood

[@T1374]

@@bigdguitars ok. That second one had a binding so I asked. I'm wondering how it can be done if the guitar has a binding. A pen torch or soldering gun I suppose?

[@JamesLovesRocks329]

That looks incredible. I normally tend to cringe at stuff like this because guitars are so precious to me; (not that I haven't ruined a few of them when I was younger and less responsible) boy I love flame maple and I love the visual effect that charring has on it. Very cool.

[@trjb1767]

Beautiful. I use this technique on axe handles I make.

[@budandbean1]

Amazing how beautiful this is. After watching the charring process I was saying to myself, "self, there is no way that's going to clean up to make a halfway presentable guitar". Wow, it looked great and the back is gorgeous. Plus with the faux bindings it really brings out contrast between the pieces. I'm curious to see what you are going to do with the headstock...

[@bigdguitars]

most likely going to sell this as is with a bridge. I would not do a charred neck I don't think it would ever play right.

[@budandbean1]

Oh well, I'd really like to see something matching. When you were filling the center joined area, I was wondering if this could have been mounted on another piece of wood prior to flaming and then cutting the match line and gluing it together. Actually that's the same thing I was thinking on a headstock, flaming prior and then using the wood as a veneer. You would certainly know before me. Thanks for the response though...

[@lauriedepaurie]

Buddy Martin a dark baked maple neck (like musikraft offers) would look pretty cool with this I think. It gets that same walnutty colour the ash has, and they have some of the best flamed maple necks out there...

[@budandbean1]

Lauren's, that would be a nice look too, keep even the neck dark. Thanks for the suggestion, I'm keeping these ideas. :-)

[@MICKEYISLOWD]

Buddy Martin Yeah, when it started to burn and catch fire I thought it was ruined already lol... but it turned out really cool lookin.

[@ScottDreyfus]

Would a butane torch work better since it doesn't get quite as hot

[@jakeem1325]

Awesome vid... thanks

[@butteredbiskit3497]

I think if you did a black burst to cover some of the "ugly" grain on the sides would be awesome as well.

[@geoycs]

Cool! But wipe-on poly seems like a letdown. Why not accentuate the antique look and feel with a nice oil finish or nitro?

[@JustinHallPlus]

Fun project! I just did my own hillbilly version of torrefication. I went to Menards and they had a piece of 8" by 6' maple that had pretty good figure on it for 20 dollars, so I cut it into pieces long enough for a guitar top, and put it in the oven for 4 hours at 360 degrees F. It turned out really well, but the boards did cup a little bit. It's no big deal, and I'll still be able to make a beautiful top out of it, but if I try it again I will be clamping the wood together with the grain in opposite directions next time to try to mitigate any change in the shape of the wood. In fact I'm trying the technique out on some hickory now.

[@bigdguitars]

I would love to see how that turned out!! what happened to the wood? how bad did the house smell?

[@JustinHallPlus]

I'll upload a picture and post a link when I get home from work today. The maple made the house smell great, kind of like a mix between cookies and pancakes. The hickory didn't produced a similar smell, but it wasn't as strong. The maple has more sugar in it I guess, so it darkened up a little more, but it looks just like the professionally torrefied neck on my last parts guitar I built. I'll post a side by side picture later.

[@JustinHallPlus]

Oh yeah, and I should probably warn everyone who reads this, don't do this unless you know what you're doing and have a fire extinguisher handy. Wood is assigned a generic flash point of about 450 degrees Fahrenheit, and at the low level of moisture in the wood, it would burn pretty violently if it caught on fire. I don't want anybody burning their house down because of me.

[@CoolHandMikeYT]

Charring the wood might be better to do earlier in the guitar making process. Maybe when you first get the lumbar for the guitar, because that heat probably warps the guitar somehow. Not sure how it would affect the glue for the join either. Does it really sound the same?

[@evilcowboy]

You can't do it earlier otherwise there is going to be bare wood from routing and working the wood. He did it at the right time. Its the same technique as Shou-sugi-ban where it first came from. The pros are it makes the wood water proof, removes moisture, increases rigidity. The removal of moisture is why it is resistant to warping, twisting and cupping. The cons are the glue does separate and it costs you a very small amount of thickness. This has been done primarily to necks due to making the neck resist changes in humidity. He just did it with the wrong gas, He needed to use oxy/acetylene torch so it burns the wood fast enough so the heat is not concentrated and allowed to gather in the wood and weaken the glue completely. Been used for thousands of years just need to finish with oil and your done.

[@ScrapwoodCity]

Cool wood burning technique!

[@mojojojo1095]

Do you make all these in the US ?

[@MattWinkler1]

Looks amazing! What are your thoughts on combining scorching and dyes? Dyes before burning? Burning before dyes? Thinking a subtle cherry burst with scorching to accent the grain could look amazing, but the order probably makes a big difference here and I don't have enough guitars to test it on!

[@bigdguitars]

I have thought about doing that before. too many projects. I did this sorta with my bass: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eF7On4uHjax1Zpo

[@TomKrall]

Awesome. I'd like to see your attempt with gunpowder like Michi's acoustic top.

[@hayndaswhy]

There's a really old Japanese wood finishing technique called "Shou Sugi Ban" which is basically charring the wood to carbonize & preserve it. Give that a look and see if maybe you can pull something from there.

[@tjforgey7854]

Doesn't burning release the glue?

[@dksouthpawatx]

have you tried using a heatgun? I wonder if the higher power ones get hot enough to achieve a similar look, it'd probably be a little more controlled

[@MyREDTAIL]

Question.? I want to Flame treat a couple of Maple Wooden Baseball Bats for my kids some say that you cannot Flame treat any Maple wood.? I see that your Flame treating your maple wood etc. Thanks for sharing etc.

[@bigdguitars]

yea you could do it. just don't hold the flame there too long

[@aneasyonesoicanremember6933]

It's it worth doing it with woods such as basswood? I'm curious because they almost have no figure at all, what would it look like?

[@bigdguitars]

Basswood burns up relatively quickly. you could try it but you have to go over the wood very lightly so you don't burn it too much.

[@aneasyonesoicanremember6933]

@@bigdguitars thank you!

[@gregsbest]

I admire your patience and careful workmanship. I would like to know your prices. I saw no prices on your site. You were moving to Nashville at the time. Finally great quality out of the U.S.- pay attention Gibson ! Congrats to you Derek.

[@bigdguitars]

Thanks for the kind words. I have my pod coming soon guitars will be up shortly.

[@bigdguitars]

I have some bodies listed on my site now. Shop up and running.

[@mrpres17]

That's really freaking awesome and gorgeous! Where did you get the heat treated ash body from?

[@bigdguitars]

Owl Hardwood Lumber in Des Plaines.

[@Account3of7]

Nice work! The heat treated ash looks and sounds awesome! I've been a fan of baked woods for a while now. How about watering the top, letting it soak a bit an then putting a torch to it? I would guess it prevents burning and the water trick usually helps the flames in the maple pop out some more.

[@bigdguitars]

I was thinking of maybe using naptha to soak and the light it ala Jimi... not sure how save that is.

[@DisturbedVette]

What is this "heat treating" that you mentioned? Is it necessary? I'm thinking of doing this to a guitar neck, will it work on a fretboard as well?

[@dksouthpawatx]

Where did you get the heat treated ash from? That is so pretty!

[@sebk428]

Thank you for your tutorial videos! Can you do the charring on pieces of wood other than maple? or is it exlusively for maple tops?

[@hillsmith]

What if you charred the top before you glued it on?

[@bigdguitars]

I need to char and then route and clean up

[@stevenjarvis7454]

Use a larger torch head like for asphalt and it won't catch on fire as much

[@ccampau]

very cool

[@johnchase8510]

Torching lumber in below freezing temps... Is this the economy version of Torrefaction? :-DDig the rustic appearance, and the ash really looks great as well!

[@edadpops1709]

If you love that youll love the gun powder method.on yt there is a vid about a fellow who uses the powder scorching method. Basicaly sprinkle the guitar with a liberal amount of smokeless gun powder.place canvas over the top and light a wick of powder it takes 10 seconds. Ive tried it on sample pieces, with fait results. Much practice is needed before you toast a awesome top.

[@bigdguitars]

Edad Martin I saw that years ago kinda an inspiration for this along the wood working rag.

[@buddinmaplestory]

Is it possible for the wood to be stained and charred? If so, how would one go about it?

[@bigdguitars]

I don't know I thought about doing that 1st but left this one clean maybe the next one

[@adammoran7849]

Char it LIGHTLY then stain it. I've done it on everything from pine to pecan to cedar

[@tarsiousmunalembohol]

Maybe the glue shim delamanated on the burning process?

[@zaccarter3801]

could you char the edges and use that as the "burst" and then paint that tobacco burst center. That would look bad ass with a satin finish

[@bigdguitars]

Zac Carter that's a great idea actually.

[@zaccarter3801]

I am learning to build my first guitar soon. So i have been thinking of a design, got a keep a few to myself just in case its the next big thing ;) but i would be curious to see this finish done on a lp style, if you do video requests lol

[@evilcowboy]

Yes I did it and it works fine as long as you don't let the flame concentrate at a glue joint. Also it helps to use acetylene gas which burns hotter and speeds up the burning so the flame doesn't need to be concentrated to get the effect leaving glue joint intact.

[@luthierbeginner8572]

I like it.

[@skylarpenn7825]

You should use a roofing torch it makes a more even burn

[@bigdguitars]

Skylar Penn thats a great idea. I need to find one!

[@skylarpenn7825]

eBay and a propane tank

[@bigdguitars]

Very good suggestion. Thanks for the info!

[@tmidd12]

What bits and settings are you using for your faux binding?

[@SwainBjornstrandt]

Hey question. How do you remove moisture from the woods you work with? I have some big pine blocks but they were very moist and i dont think using them will be the best choice.

[@bigdguitars]

Bring them inside. Let them sit for a few months. If they have been wet takes about a year per inch to dry

[@SwainBjornstrandt]

@@bigdguitars so i should cut them in smaller pieces and let them dry, i guess? thanks big d!

[@denniszaragoza1]

Always go with the grain

[@OddTimeMan]

Orbital sanders spin, so it doesn't matter.

[@georgelackey622]

Do not use an orbital sander on wood, they are for metal or just smoothing wood for paint. SAND WITH THE GRAIN!!!!!!

[@kommi1974]

Yep. ONLY with grain.

[@jefflitchfield4950]

@@georgelackey622 why do they use orbitals at every guitar shop I've seen or worked in and every cabinet factory I've worked at?

[@codyjewell1460]

I really wish you would show the process for the wipe on poly or at least include video of the finished product. There's many of your guitar stain jobs that I am itching to see clear coated and finished but every video iust leaves you hanging. Either way great videos, greatly informative as always

[@shanikameekins]

looks cool but loses chatoyance of the flame maple seems crazy to do

[@vhcxhbvg]

how'd you do the fake binding

[@bengordon7635]

paint or dye top then scrape edge with razor using ur fingers as guide for width of binding

[@_nickoustic_7923]

Use tape lol then use a razor or a piece of like 600 grit sandpaper to clean up the bleed marks

[@brimermike74]

Burnt marshmallow guitar... Really cool =)

[@MegaGuitarpicker]

I go in circles to prevent the bad burn

[@charliebowen5071]

It’s a Japanese wood working technique for finishing.. it’s called shou sugi ban... type that in google and it will show you how a master does it... it’s an art all to itself!

[@adammoran7849]

I've seen alotta questionable stuff in my 47yrs of life.. but this, this tops the list.

[@adammoran7849]

That wasn't a compliment lol

[@saftovooey4569]

@4:48 "I've got that semen the middle"

[@davidelanna2306]

bella tecnica e pensare che questa è una tecnica giapponese che hanno usato per bruciare il legno per proteggerlo al di fuori, quella contraddizione. Ora è stato riscoperto come una tecnica per la progettazione e viene usato per fornire. Shou-sugi Ban chiamato, bravo ad applicarlo alla chitarra, come faccio anche quasi l'unica retro è in mogano, anche se non saprei come gestire, regola il fuoco fuori per paura che possiamo anche piega, forse dargli un certo colore.

[@jojofixer]

You need a "flame spreading" tip.

[@JADP-dd7xb]

how much will it cost to order a solid maple body (body only) telecaster 7 string blue burst, with a 2 humbucker, a les paul type selector and 1 volume no tone? the neck that i will use is from an LTD m-17

[@bigdguitars]

+James Pasamanero Hey I am moving shops right now I can't take on any new work. -Derek

[@JADP-dd7xb]

+BigDGuitars - sure thing i'll try some other time, i really like your work.

[@JohnDoe-dh8xc]

I think a yellow stain would've made for a better looking faux binding

[@ericzimmerman6461]

Put a thin piece of metal on top so that it doesn't light the wood on fire.

[@JuanRodriguez-bp2rl]

Why burning all you need is dark brown stain

[@conservativerealist]

Bro blue flame doesn't produce soot.you don't need to burn it get an oxygen accelerate ring and turn the oxygen way down so you have just a lot of soot coming out let that land on the wood

[@hugokraft2815]

FLAMED maple

[@neshiah4747]

Too much heat.

[@davisnin]

Not enough. You want enough to instantly char the surface without enough time to heat the core.

[@5kr3aminMunk33]

Just for future reference, the wood isn't on fire, the flammable gases it releases are though; so idk if that information necessarily helps, but it's there now lol

[@davisnin]

Gotta go hotter and faster or the interior of the wood will dry out too much.

[@RNicolasRuvalcaba]

Great video.... except for the part where you essentially ruin a perfectly good guitar body. The only burnt guitar that I want to own is the one that Jimi Hendrix burned at Monterey Pop Festival.

[@bengordon7635]

I could never burn a beautiful flame top .....just throw it in a fire pull it out u have your burnt guitar

[@bigdguitars]

did you see this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rqK0mGypgLyYn9k

[@twst1]

mapp gas might be better

[@rabakomaba4562]

Mine works too. I used the Woodglut plans and performed it without any problems.

[@kenmasters007]

why ?

[@bigdguitars]

why not?

[@georgelackey622]

This is really wrong in so many ways. If you don't fuck it up you don't need filler!

[@minecraftcanel76]

O^^O

[@smokepeddler]

Looks like $h!t. Propane does not burn hot enough.

[@highrollerdiscs805]

this is a terrible idea imo

[@prodigal71]

I've gotten so many good ideas from this channel