Charring Wood For Preservation - Yakisugi Method

Roger takes a look at the ancient technique of charring wood to protect it from the elements.
Sponsored by Snickers Workwear: www.snickersworkwear.co.uk
FURTHER READING
Wikipedia overview
Yakisugi (焼杉) is a traditional Japanese method of wood preservation. Yaki means to heat with fire, and sugi is cypress. It is referred to in the West as burnt timber cladding and also known as shou sugi ban (焼杉板) which uses the same kanji characters but an incorrect pronunciation. The ban character means 'plank'.
By slightly charring the surface of the wood without combusting the whole piece, the wood becomes water-proof through the carbonisation and is thus more durable. It also protects against insects and makes the wood fire retardant.
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#Yakisugi #CharredWood #ShouSugiBan
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[@iantarncarpentry4285]

My brother did a job in Chelmsford that required all the cladding be charred before putting it on, it’s amazing to think people have being doing it for thousands of years!

[@northeastcorals]

If you're doing planks or scaffold boards etc & want a fast/cheap/easy way to get a deep burn on the surface without a gas torch etc the traditional method is to stand 3 boards up on their end & strap them together in a triangle chimney shape with wire, shove a ball of scrunched up paper in the bottom & light it. The fire shoots up the boards in its search of O2 & creates quite an impressive looking flame thrower that DEEPLY chars the boards VERY quickly. WARNING do not do this next to your house or anything you do not want red hot embers landing on!!! Works a treat.

[@scottmassino3051]

How long does it take? In other words, what and when do I “set my timer to” before my wood steak goes from well-done to unusable?

[@northeastcorals]

@@scottmassino3051 Varies depending on the wood, the conditions & how deep a char you want etc so you basically have to just set it away & then spray it with a hose pipe once it's done to the way you want it. I done scaffold boards in the winter & wanted a deep charing effect which I seem to remember took around 10 to 20 seconds to get the full flamethrower effect going from lighting the paper & then only around 30 to 45 seconds once the flamethrower effect had fully established to achieve a deep charing. Obviously you can only do a very deep char on reasonably thick timber say 25mm or thicker as thinner timber would just loose integrity & fall apart so just do a shorter burns on these. Then use a hose & stiff brush to clean off the loose burnt wood, be warned this bit can get messy.

[@foxxyboxxy9348]

@@scottmassino3051 this is faster than any other method, if u want a deep burn. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qKu5oHWlnJ10lZY Unless u really know what ur doing, preparing the wood chimney takes more time and is more work than just flaming it with a torch.

[@spanishpeaches2930]

Reminds me of my mum's cooking when i was young.

[@EM-fh2tx]

Evidently one of your parents provided you with edible food.

[@lusoroofing5221]

lol glad you made it and this here to comment.

[@WhiteOak09]

That's just wrong 😂

[@tomasmorrissey7324]

I've used this before to inhance the look and with the scrub of a wire brush and some bees wax it really brings up the grain and looks stunning imo

[@RollCorruption]

Awesome video - showed it to my boss now we are looking at offering it as a cladding option for garden rooms :D

[@LupusMechanicus]

Good old technique thanks Roger! Will be useful very soon.

[@Nettle314]

Nice one!

[@ianarmitage3518]

I've chared the wood on my garden room then brushed it back really brings out the grain. Also on my fence posts I cut up the middle about a foot with a jigsaw then leave it in a bucket of fence treatment for as long as I can to let it soak up normally 2 months or so.been in 10 years not even gon green or rotted.

[@l0I0I0I0]

Brilliant! Thank you. I've read about this but you brought the point home. Does it work the same for green wood?

[@Car-dash-Ian]

Hi Roger very informative videos. I've heard that after charring the wood you need to coat it with boiled linseed oil

[@PC-oi4kj]

TRADA carried out tests many years ago to determine the effectiveness of charing and found it needed to be to a depth of 15 mm or more to make it impervious to oxygen, which is required for the rotting process. Surface charing does work but only slows the process. Lack of oxygen, lack of rotting, which is why timber in peat bogs is still viable after thousands of years.

[@kenb4348]

What about wet rot, it it impervious to water.

[@ad9ack82]

@@kenb4348 Peat bogs are pretty wet! 😂

[@robertreeder6742]

Would it be enough to char the wood only at ground level if this is the usual rotting point?

[@snapdragogon69]

I once made a vertical feather-edge fence and my saw broke, so I found if I cut the wood with an angle grinder, it would smokily char the cut to a glossy, sealed and scortched finish and it never decayed on the edge facing upwards on those peices..

[@stoopidhaters]

Only issue is there will still be moisture inside. Still a great idea though!

[@beerye3750]

Would it make the fence boards warp, if so would it be okay to do after building?

[@driftingmelodies]

Magnificent...is it better to burn it wet newly cut wood or dried one ?

[@peterbridges6851]

I never knew that cheers.

[@shaunballard3614]

What type of torch are you using?

[@lisat9707]

Just watched another channel on this. For the planks use 3 make a chimney. Start a lil fire at one end. Prop up over a bbq or steel grate. Let burn flip. For a bit, then unbind carefully and boom burne planks. You can also flip and redo it on the other side, finish off with the tortch on the edges if you need

[@smoll.miniatures]

Does it not warp the wood?

[@grrarg9319]

We use the same technique for BBQs. Keeps the food preserved for thousands of years. 😉

[@RedandAprilOff-Grid]

😂

[@stoopidhaters]

Haha, but I wonder if that's actually true? Maybe not the thousand year part, but maybe several days?

[@elobiretv]

may be wrong but that doesn't look charred deep enough from what I've seen on other videos. Mr Chickadee has some good videos on this and burns the wood much deeper.

[@SkillBuilder]

Yes I got bored

[@johannwolf1]

If you like Mr. Chickadee... you'll love Martijn Doolaard

[@mofaz3475]

Does it compromise the strength of the timbers at all? and does it protect against water damage? Thinking of doing this for a garden room base.

[@jintsuubest9331]

A bit late but I know a little bit. Take it with many grains of salt. You are burning the outside, creating maybe a centimeter of burnt layer. It will not have any major implication to any wood that is going to carry any load. We burn post (that's carrying all the load) to treat them like this for centuries. It is still recommended to seal the wood with some liquid based solution. The burning does create a weather resistant layer from the process of burning it. But as it cools down, micro crack will form. Water and microbe will finds it way into those cracks. Lastly, it does nothing against insects. The best treatment process is 1. Burn them. Let it cool down. 2. Treat them with preservative. 3. Seal them.

[@RedandAprilOff-Grid]

We used Charred Wood Accelerator, it should last a long time, as long as we keep a good wood sealer on it. It was easy to do, and looks great!

[@SkillBuilder]

Good to know! We will check it out

[@RedandAprilOff-Grid]

We used it on the boards under our eaves. We just put the first video on it out today.

[@charlescoker7752]

Did the Vikings use the wood sealer your talking about?

[@grimawormtongue2014]

​@@SkillBuilder hi Roger. Nice video. I have a shed, one wall will be facing the neighbors wall, once it's up, there will be little space to access it. It already has a layer of paint on there. I was thinking of lightly charring, then painting it with bitumen and then sticking damp proof membrane on top of the bitumen. Is this a good idea or absurd?

[@sasa1982uk]

Just raise the concrete around the base of the post by 50ml above ground level and angle it like a pyramid

[@bimble7240]

Proper Creosote is still available to the trade. I soak the bottoms of the posts in it (so that leaves 3" showing above ground) for a couple of days. No signs of rot after 12 years.

[@marketsmoto3180]

here is a sneaky tip to keep your fence posts lasting literally forever.... put em straight in the dirt.... but about a 1ft off the ground drill a nice sized hole down the middle, and fill it up with old motor oil, and then make a little dow plug for the hole, and every couple years go around and add a lil oil to your posts, and boom, forever posts

[@sleepymoose1]

Of course you will probably polluting the soil for 100s of years. 😢

[@gordonoliphant8639]

Do the brushed boards last as long as the one who have the char left on

[@SkillBuilder]

Good question

[@chrislc35]

many better instruction vids about. shou sugi ban, is the japanese term for it. char the wood, brush it off. do not follow this 3min video if you are a beginner.

[@EM-fh2tx]

How will you test the effectiveness?

[@ricos1497]

Roger is immortal. He'll still be uploading videos in 2237.

[@rogergregory5981]

Really needs to be burnt/charred deep thought so you need to start of really thick chunky bits of timber like 6x6 posts

[@markrichardhall9089]

It’s called “Shou Sugi Ban” and it’s an amazingly effective wood preserver and quite beautiful if done properly on face timber. One caveat I would mention is that certain species are far more suited than others. This list is too comprehensive to give on here so I suggest looking online as there are many threads carrying detail on this subject.

[@BillyMustang101]

Shou Sugi Ban is the wrong pronunciation that the West has coined. Yakisugi is the correct term. You'd get funny looks in Japan if you said the former. SSB uses the same Kanji characters but means something different whereas Yaki means "to heat with fire" and Sugi is cypress.

[@dave1secondago]

thanxs that was a top tip , cant by creosote any more cheers

[@nickhickson8738]

Think you can buy a substitute called Creocote though.

[@ozzyefc44]

Coat it with bitumen paint 👍

[@gmarsh7873]

I do this sho sugi ban. Also like to black jack

[@bitsandbobs4082]

Think this works with osb3

[@valuepurposemission7517]

please be sure to use properly dried wood for your charring . if it checks rot and critters could set in.

[@charlescoker7752]

Wonder if paint would adhere to the charred wood?

[@SkillBuilder]

no it won't

[@riverrat7529]

been doing it for years

[@davidpatrick1813]

Why not burn treated?

[@tusk3260]

actually all the old Canadian barns that you see in the country side were built using charred wood, especially on the french side. And yes, they are still standing today and not rotten at all... But, i haven't one that isn't deformed in some way. Its standing but its not pretty to look at.

[@lrdisco2005]

Old farmers trick for fence posts scorch the end to stop it rotting in the ground.

[@saltybildo9448]

Imma char the siding wood on my chicken shack I made from pallet wood 👍👍👍👍

[@SteveAndAlexBuild]

This video sponsored by a workwear company and the Prodigy …….. I’m a fire starter 🔥🔥🔥🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽😉🧱👍🏼

[@sarchlalaith8836]

There is a better method, you need a metal or fireproof air tight box, heat it slowly over hours until the wood is baked, 2 hours per inch I think it was, and that drives out all the volatiles and burnsthem consuming any oxygen then the resin drips out and you're left with petrified/fossilised wood that's more fire resistant than structural steel. And harder than bronze.

[@beatonthedonis]

So basically the entire wood preservative industry is a giant con.

[@Solus]

I made a door using left over floor boards. Charred the ends then sealed the entire thing with a mix of engine oil and brake cleaner to help thin and penetrate the wood

[@Jackzuk]

How to telephone poles last so long?

[@eowyn-faramir-reads]

Shitloads of chemicals at very high pressure. Knew a man who worked at treating power poles his whole career- he had nose cancer so back they had to completely rebuild his face.

[@pussinboots1145]

They're soaked in creosote for 3 months.

[@shaunedwards4893]

Dumped my old charcoal in the back yard. Still like new.

[@josephamani3323]

Green grams peeling machine in kenya

[@daihedral9269]

The research suggests that the process is ineffective. 'Shou sugi ban, also known as yakisugi, or just sugi ban, is an aesthetic wood surface treatment that involves charring the surface of dimensional lumber, such as exterior cladding. The goal of this research is to examine the effect of shou sugi ban on the flammability and decay resistance of wood. Several species and variants of commercially available sugi ban were tested. The flammability was examined from the heat release rate curves using the oxygen consumption method and cone calorimeter. Durability was examined with a soil block assay for one white-rot fungus and one brown-rot fungus. The testing showed that the shou sugi ban process did not systematically improve the flammability or durability of the siding' Hasburgh, Laura & Zelinka, Samuel & Bishell, Amy & Kirker, Grant. (2021). Durability and Fire Performance of Charred Wood Siding (Shou Sugi Ban). Forests. 12. 1262. 10.3390/f12091262.

[@smgibv4393]

Sponsored by Big Chem?

[@michaelking3206]

Tell that to the Japanese and the Vikings.

[@funkeybikemonkey]

Haha see his gas bill!

[@euandick]

Why are you burning a building yard ready treated post 😂 !? Not effective and dangerous fumes. Need some seasoned Larch or Cedar, Christ man!

[@SkillBuilder]

Could not get it