George Vondriska

Torching Wood

George Vondriska

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Duration:   3  mins

Description

Everything old becomes new again! For instance, using a propane torch to char the surface of a piece of wood, changing its color. Torching wood is something that has been around for a really long time. It’s an interesting way to change a wood’s color without using stain or dye.

Making it happen

Torching wood is waaaay more art than science. It’s something that you have to mess around with and get a feel for. Results are sort of predictable, but not completely. There are lots of variables. Many propane torches have interchangeable tips creating a more diffuse, or concentrated, flame. More concentrated = more heat = more charring.

Material selection will also affect the end result. Softwoods char more readily than hardwoods. A few examples are shown in the video. Pine and cedar will char very easily, with dramatic results. Hard maple, not so much. Experiment, and see what you like best.

You can follow torching wood with some sanding, which will lighten the color, add a topcoat, which may change the color, or experiment with staining over the char to really get some interesting things going.

Finishing

Lots of woodworkers get apprehensive when it comes to finishing their projects. It’s understandable. So much effort goes into the build, and a misstep in finishing can turn the clock back, a lot. If you want to take some of the fear out of finishing, we’re here to help. If charring wood isn’t your thing, you might be interested in making homemade wood stain. In addition to staining and coloring wood, we’ve got more videos on wood finishing that will help you get the best possible finish on your next project.

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4 Responses to “Torching Wood”

  1. marksjohnson

    Recommendations for final finishes that work particularly well or not as well?

  2. RONALD WEBSTER

    Shou Sugi Ban. An acquired taste to be sure, but it can be beautiful when done with care. Thanks.

  3. Woody

    The point of several DIY program examples of flame treating wood is not the coloration, but the weathrtproofing! An old Japanese treatment for wood preservation.

  4. Michael Bradford

    Terrible way he went about conveying the info on torching wood. A child could do the same with a torch. A child that was showed how to patiently use the torch to bring out the veins and knots of the piece would show the artistic way that most can make a plain board beautiful. Add poly urethane after and you have a masterpiece.

Talking to a friend of mine the other day, and they said, "I saw this really cool thing on Pinterest, where they used like a flame and they made a board dark". So, what occurred to me out of this is like, old stuff becomes new again. What we're talking about is taking a piece of wood, treating it with a propane torch and adding color to it. No stain. So let me show you, and then we'll go back and talk some more about this. So, it was just kinda funny because this like, I think I did this in junior high to my woodworking projects. And this was just, this idea has been around since forever as a way to color wood. But again, it was coming up as like, oh, here's this cool new thing. So here we are, talking about it. Very subjective operation here. Obviously on this end, I stayed in place a little longer than I did on this end, that makes it darker. If the flame coming out of your torch is more concentrated, kind of into a pinpoint, that's gonna change this. Less concentrated, that's gonna change this. Different materials are gonna change how they react to this. It's gonna affect how it reacts to this. So we'll talk about that. The other thing you can do once this part's done, is hit that with a little bit of sanding, And that'll change it. So this is something that, it's worth messing around with just to see what it brings to the project table for you, and see if it's a look that you like. Now, let's talk about other materials. Softwoods, that's a piece of pine, home center pine. Softwoods work the best. This is poplar. So it's harder than pine, not as hard as other hardwoods. And we're getting some effect there. This is Baltic birch, it's pretty hard material. And it's interesting like, the torch is barely having an effect on it. I really gotta dawdle to get it to work on the Baltic. So maybe a look you like, maybe not a look that you like, but as always with woodworking, it's good to have a lot of things in your arsenal, a lot of ideas to choose from. And this is one way you can add color to your wood.

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