Want info on "Burnt Cedar" old Japanese finish

[Matt Lau]

Today, I dropped by my friend's antique store in Japantown.

He mentioned something about a very old technique for treating wood in Japan.
Apparently, cedar is burt before oils are rubbed.
The resultant finish is rather striking looking, and he rather likes it.

Does anyone have any information on this?

He gave me a piece of old wood finished in this fashion.
I can post a picture of it on Tuesday if you'd like.

[Steve Schoene]

You will have to provide more info to get a good response. So far you've just told us it was burnt cedar and that it's rather striking.

Not Japanese, but George Frank talks about scorching wood for some finishes he developed in the 1930's.. He used a blow torch--today we would use a propane torch. One example was to slowly scorch wood until it was uniformly black. Then he used a soft scrub brush to remove the black, revealing a range of shades. The final results will depend on the figure in the wood, how deeply and evenly it is scorched, and then what kind of brush and the degree of vigor used to remove the scorched portions. This can result in heavily textured wood if desired. He used shellac to enhance contrast and provide gloss. Danish oil would also work to enhance contrast, but could still leave the surface fragile if you wanted to leave a relatively large amount of the charred portion of the wood.

[Chris Fournier]

George Frank's two books are a must read for every woodworker! As Steve has shown, his funky old techniques are still very relevant. The guy was a real character and very humourous to read.

[Steve Schoene]

And, not bashful.