Scorching wood?

[SeanS]

Does anyone know how to "scorch" wood to get a burnt effect on a finished piece? How about branding? And while I'm at it, ebonising or wire brushed effects either?

Thanks for any help,

Sean

[Kev Y.]

Seans, as far as I know all you need for scorching is a butaine blow torch,

for ebonising, I believe that you mix some vinagar and some steel wool together in a glass jar, not sure exactly how long it has to be left standing for before use.

Wire brushing could possably be achieved by using a rotory wire brush in a drill.

[rsser]

Yes, I've used a blow torch but some timbers tend to crack in the heat.

Wire brushing: rotary or manual depending on wood hardness.

An alternative ebonising solution is simply to use one of those tubes of liquid shoe polish.

Attached is a photo of an English Ash bowl (c. 28 cm diam.) that was torched, rotary wire brushed and then finished with plain shellac. Jarrah stain and shellac were used on the inside. It developed a number of cracks during torching that I left as part of its distressed character.

[SeanS]

Thanks guys, to the lathe I go to try these things!

[scooter]

Sean, I think some scorch the piece, then wire brush, which gives greater "relief" :eek: to the wood grain (sort of a textured look ??)

Great name too, by the way.

Sean the confused.

[ubeaut]

Burning is even better when done with oxy acetaline if you have acces to it. Much quicker, easier and creates less cracks. Excellent for the sculptured worn timber effect, and the fact that it doesn't char the timber as much as slower burning, makes it easy to clean up and use with colours as well as black.


Cheers - Neil :)

[Jeff]

I use a hand held gas torch and have a spray bottle of water in the other hand to cool off the wood as I go and control the overall temperaure of the wood. It really varies with each species and each chunk of wood. Those with pitch in them are a sometimes a bit risky as the pitch can take off and shoot little flaming projectiles out. Best to clean up any shavings or sawdust in the area or take the wood to a safe location. One of my favorite woods to "burn" is something we call "Yellow Cedar" here. It grows only on the Olympic Penninsula of Washington State. It has a nice golden glow to it that can be set off by torching it enough to open up small crack lines that look a lot like crackled glass. By burning these lines and then polishing the overall surface to the golden finish it produces a very eyecatching end result. For wire brushing, just give it a good burn then attack it with a wire brush or for a smoother finish use steel wool. Remember good ventilation, there are few particle masks that will even slow down smoke, and we wouldn't risk breathing smoke now would we?!! :D

[bowmaker_oa]

i was just looking up how to scorch my yellow cedar staff i am making for oa when i ran into jeffs post.....jeff great minds think alike. yellow cedar is a cool wood,but red cedar works to.

[ElizaLeahy]

Ebonising solution - white vinigar and rusty nails. You can use steel wool, but it tends to make it murky with bits of the wool dropping off into the solution.

Leave it 3 weeks minimum.

[Ed Reiss]

Nice bowl 'Ern

[Edwards]

Does anyone know how to "scorch" wood to get a burnt effect on a finished piece? How about branding? And while I'm at it, ebonising or wire brushed effects either?

Thanks for any help,

Sean


Sean,
I agree with all of the other good tips.
If you like a fine detail black line around the edge of a bowl etc, first cut a shallow and narrow vee groove, about 1mm with the corner of a skew chisel.
Run the lathe at around 1000 to 1500 rpm and hold a piece of thin steel wire, say 1mm diameter in both hands on the top area of the bowl and down into the groove.
Friction will soon cause the wire to give off smoke and create a fine black line that can be used to enhance good design.
Cheers
Edwards :)

[pitbull]

i was just looking up how to scorch my yellow cedar staff i am making for oa when i ran into jeffs post.....jeff great minds think alike. yellow cedar is a cool wood,but red cedar works to.

Welcome to the forum Bowmaker. :)