Thread: Smoked Oak, a timber review.

Artful Bodger

That has come up very well. I have not heard of this technique before.

I went looking and did come up with this, but no explanation of the technique.

Smoked Solid Timber | Eco-Core

Regards
Paul

The funny thing is,
Is smoked Tiber smoked with burning timber.
Or am I just weird lol.

Hi Killjoy, oooppps AB.
Is this the process they call fuming?
I seem to remember reading in a mag.
But can, t think how it was done !
I am sure it involved vinegar ? But i could be wrong.....

Originally Posted by smiife

Hi Killjoy, oooppps AB.
Is this the process they call fuming?
I seem to remember reading in a mag.
But can, t think how it was done !
I am sure it involved vinegar ? But i could be wrong.....

From memory fuming is the process of placing a timber(finished piece)
In a air tight vessel(bag)with some ammonia in it.
For a period of time
I've only read of it never done it.
I think ??? Could be wrong or have some details wrong.

Cheers Matt

Originally Posted by SimpIicity

From memory fuming is the process of placing a timber(finished piece)
In a air tight vessel(bag)with some ammonia in it.
For a period of time
I've only read of it never done it.
I think ??? Could be wrong or have some details wrong.

Cheers Matt

Hi matt, yeah, I think that was It , ammonia !
never done It myself , but I am sure someone has
and will tell us "how to ".......

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Originally Posted by artful bodger

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Wikipedia describes smoking of oak using amonia fumes
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia_fuming
It is the tannin within the wood that reacts to cause the darkening. I presume that pressure chambers are used to assist even penetration for commercial timbers. Any which way, its a great look. Might even try with some of my green oak blocks to see what happens (minus the pressure chamber).

Jex in. Vinegar will darken the oak
Regards
David

I find this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia_fuming

Rustic Oak Crown Cut Aged - Natural Wood Veneers

Adler Fertigparkett: Smoked Oak

It occurs to me that one could make a bowl or other turning, do everything but the final sanding, fume it, then do final sanding and finish.

It would be interesting to see how deep the smoke effect would be, and would you sand through. I also wonder if the turning would warp from the moisture of the fuming.

About 5 years ago I collected a small bucket of burned timber off cuts from a local stair maker. I was told that it was especially imported from the USA for a client who wanted the floors and stairs made from it.

Whilst I don't know the specie it looks very similar to yours. Very dark and smelled of burned timber. I turned a few items from it and it stank in the workshop for a few days. Even now the rest of the off cuts, having been stored in an open aired shed, still smells a little bit.

At the time I was advised that it is a very common practice to use this kind of timber to line the outside of hunting cabins as it can stand up to the summer heat and winter snow without further maintenance.

It is burned in a kiln, similar process to making charcoal, and somehow changes the timber to make it so very durable.

Can bring a sample to the next Melbourne get together if there is interest in handling this.

Peter.

The stuff I used did not have a noticeable smell. I had heard though that it was a heat treatment rather than a chemical/ammonia process, although I have no definitive proof of that.

Here are a couple more processes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=395coGRLFn0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CLvXUcOM-U

I think the way it is done is heating at a high enough temperature to get the timber to darken, but not high enough to char, and keeping it at that temperature long enough to go all the way through. I suspect as long as there is a demand for smoked timber and the premium price holds, the temperature and time are a closely guarded secret.

I have an annealing oven used in metal working that is able to hold close temperature, but have so much going on in my life that I need to do other stuff before trying to darken wood.

I have inadvertently darkened and charred the edges of roughed out bowls in a microwave. One might get an old ugly microwave that had several defrost settings and play with cooking wood samples.

Some of this "smoked" timber sounds more just like kiln-dried but with the kiln cranked way up to just below deflagration ... so not as hot as making charcoal which is what the smelly smokey timber is likely more like.