Wood burning technology is used to create a finishing material called “burnt wood”. Experienced builders know that wood is an environmentally friendly and very difficult material, which always needs to be treated with special impregnations before it can be used in construction and repairs.
However, there are methods that allow you to protect wood and make it suitable for construction without the use of antiseptics and fire retardants; they are widespread in Europe, Asia, and America.
What is the firing technology?
1. Thermal treatment of wood involves burning coniferous wood using a gas burner.
2. The entire procedure takes up to 10 minutes, then the material is immersed in water.
3. The board is removed from the water, thoroughly washed and cleaned using special metal brushes that allow you to get rid of carbon deposits.
If the firing is uniform, this allows you to create a charred layer 1-5 mm thick on the surface of the board. This work allows you to protect the material from water, harmful microorganisms, insects, and even fire. At the same time, such a board as construction material does not lose its own and can be used anywhere.
Thermal treatment of wood at home, with some skill, really allows the wood to become less susceptible to the effects of fire. As soon as the material dries, it can be immediately used for its intended purpose. However, it can be given more best characteristics, if additionally treated with special oils.
A list of such oils can be found in any hardware store, and their range is very diverse. There is no point in recommending a specific manufacturer, you just need to clarify that negative reviews builders, as a rule, leave out the cheapest oils.
Unrivaled technology
It's amazing how effective heat treatment of wood is, especially if you know that in Japan, charred wood is used on the facades of almost every house. However, this is far from the only way to use this technology.
It is noteworthy that firing wood allows you to paint the material in a unique silvery shade, which cannot be achieved with any paints. Moreover, the depth and saturation of this color directly depend on the skill of the master and, most importantly, the duration of firing. For example, the board can take on colors ranging from gray to jet black. Naturally, the material resulting from this work could not but interest many designers and decorators.
Today, if you wish, burning wood with your own hands can be done quite simply; for this you only need strict adherence to technology and dexterity. If you learn how to do this work, you will soon be able to use a unique material when finishing the interior, flooring, great furniture. At the same time, processing wood by firing allows you to make the wood more durable, and all you need is to periodically apply oil impregnation to it.
Processing wood by firing makes it possible to obtain wood with a more pronounced structure, and the material becomes less susceptible to burning, rotting, damage by insects and ultraviolet radiation. That is, both aesthetically and practically.
We invite you to talk about why wood is fired, what can be used to burn it, what kind of wood to take for this and how to treat it after firing.
Wood burning: why do it?
Today, the most common way to protect wood from external factors is chemicals– , all kinds of impregnations. But chemistry is chemistry, and people often have a desire to process wood without using, in fact, poisons. One of these methods is wood burning.
The essence of firing is that under the influence high temperature In the outer layer of wood, during pyrolysis, the fiber channels become narrowed and clogged with combustion products and resins. Thanks to this, the top layer of wood is compacted and becomes almost inaccessible to fire, fungi, mold, insects, and sunlight.
The resulting charred layer, of course, needs to be removed. For small crafts, this is done manually with metal hard brushes; for larger ones, special attachments for grinders or drills are used. And here the second one opens pleasant wood firing quality: aged wood effect. In fact, burning wood followed by cleaning with brushes is, that is artificial aging wood And although firing is not a mandatory component of the brushing process, many craftsmen resort to it.
As a result, all kinds of boxes, picture frames, panels can be made from such wood, used in construction as logs, facade boards, beams, platbands, windows and doors, material for the manufacture of wells, toilets, dog kennels, gazebos, etc. In the latter case burning the wood with a gas burner must be carried out before assembling the structure. Firstly, burning a house is not safe, and extinguishing a fire, if one happens, will not be so easy. Secondly, it is not convenient to carry out subsequent cleaning of burnt wood on an already finished structure. You will spend a lot of effort, but you won’t be able to carefully scrape off the burnt layers, especially at the junctions of wood elements.
Burning wood: which wood to use?
As for the quality of wood, this is a rare case when the third grade is not a defect, but what we need. When soft charred fibers are brushed out after burning wood, depressions form in their place, and harder layers turn into ridges. This is the only way to get textured, relief, contrasting material. To do this, you need to choose a workpiece with: knots, curls, eyes, curls (but if we're talking about about wood for construction work, then beauty can be sacrificed here).
There is no need to pre-sand or otherwise prepare the board - firing will remove all flaws, and the wood will be given decorative properties after firing.
Although you can burn not only raw wood. For example, if you have a chair, table or fence covered with stain, and you would like to emphasize the texture of the wood, which is “eaten up” by the impregnation, wood burning also appropriate. Moreover, not only wood, but also chipboard can be fired. Let us remind you that they are subjected to firing conifers wood, so even the veneer should be pine, spruce, etc.
Wood burning technology
Before, how to burn wood, take precautions. After all, you will be working with open fire. Suitable for small bars for crafts open balcony, but with full-fledged boards it is better to work under open air.
You can burn wood:
- gas burner
- blowtorch on gasoline
- ordinary gas cylinder with nozzle
- construction hairdryer
Those who burn and brush wood on a small scale for crafts have long fallen in love with the Dremel. It is small, convenient, and in the household, a “mini-drill” is useful not only for burning wood.
In addition to wood and a burner, for firing we will need a hard brush and a soft wide brush for sweeping away the burnt material (flutes).
A brush with metal bristles is suitable for cleaning small bars. For large-scale work, it is better to arm yourself with a grinder, drill or grinder with special attachments
1. Direct burning of wood
Calmly and evenly move the burner over the wood so that there are no charred or “under-burned” areas.
You can choose the degree of firing solely according to your taste. If the firing is weak, you can then go through the burner again; if you fry it too much, you will just have to work harder to remove the carbon deposits, the pattern will be more contrasting. The main thing is uniformity of firing.
If your wood is not, it will almost certainly contain either drips or resin pockets which may catch fire. Put out the fire immediately, otherwise an unsightly dark stain will form in this place. Firing one standard board will take up to 10 minutes.
2. Scraping out sawdust
We take a hard metal brush - the kind used to remove paint - and begin to move it exclusively along the fibers. Instead of a brush, you can use a brush grinder, drill or grinder with special attachments. This way you will “stir up” burnt out soft fabrics in the hollows of wood. After practicing a little with the brush, take the flake and take it out, knock it out, pick out the sawdust. This needs to be done “against the lint”, otherwise these dust particles will simply get deeper into the cavities.
Brushing wood after firing with a brush sander
3. We bring it to the desired state
Alternating between a brush and a brush, scrape down the wood grain-by-grain with strong, long strokes. You cannot brush the brush perpendicular to the grain - the hard bristles will leave a mark and ruin the entire pattern. When to stop is up to you to decide, based on your aesthetic preferences. By firing wood and brushing, you can obtain material from gray, charcoal black to chocolate brown and golden shades.
Wood burning: what's next?
In general, you can stop at burning wood, and continue gluing, building, cutting... This is a full-fledged construction and decorative material. Firing wood allows you to get an original shade that cannot be achieved with any basic paints and varnishes.
To give wood a glossy shine, you can treat it with all kinds of high-quality oil impregnations, or tinted with primer, enamels, glaze, coated with wax and wax varnishes.
I did coffee table made of concrete that looks like marble (at least to me). The tabletop is made from a ready-mixed glass fiber reinforced concrete (glass concrete) and cast in a melamine mold. I divided the solution into parts and gave them different colour(from white to dark gray), poured everything into the mold and lightly mixed it with your hand to give the mixture a marbled appearance.
I applied an ancient Japanese technique called "Shou Sugi Ban" to the base. I used a modernized version of it and charred the surface of the wood with a propane torch. This kind of processing is natural way wood conservation. And after applying low-viscosity oil, for example, Danish, the surface will become resistant to wear. The technique works well on any type of wood with a large texture, such as Douglas fir, pine and cedar. I used inexpensive timber 10 x 10 cm Douglas Fir that I purchased from a local warehouse store.
Materials 
TREE:
- – three beams of Douglas fir, cedar or pine 10 x 10 cm and 2.5 m long;
- – dowel with a diameter of 20 mm;
- – 120 x 250 cm melamine sheet for making a concrete mold.
CONCRETE (GLASS CONCRETE) MIXTURES:
- – two bags of mixture for the glass concrete base;
- – 0.68 kg package of alkali-resistant fiber glass;
- – cake decorating tool for smoothing edges;
- – construction mixer;
- – impregnation for concrete of your choice;
- – absolutely black silicone sealant;
- – wax-based polishing mixture;
- – paint for concrete.
MORE WHAT YOU NEED:
- – propane burner;
- – Danish oil;
- – respirator;
- – grinding wheel with diamond coating (for processing the lower part of the table);
- – a set of wood drills;
- - level;
- – jig for drilling;
- – housing for an angle grinder with dust extraction.
TOOLS USED IN MANUFACTURE:
- – angular Grinder;
- – 18-volt cordless miter saw;
- – a set of 18-volt cordless screwdrivers;
- – sawing machine with a cutting width of 82 cm;
- – hand saw;
- - Miter saw.
We make a wooden base from 10 x 10 cm timber. 
The base is made from 8 pieces of 10 x 10 cm timber. I used only Douglas fir. I processed all the pieces of timber with a plane to get the material completely same size. You can make their width at your own discretion, but you can also use standard 10 x 10 bars, just try to choose smooth ones. For the base you will need 3 beams, each 2.5 m long.
Here are the eight elements (shown in the image):
- 4 legs (A);
- 2 external ties (B) - each located between two side legs;
- 2 internal ties (C).
All corners will be cut at 36 degrees. However, I would recommend cutting all the timbers a little longer first (say 10cm or more than needed) and then setting the miter saw to 36 degrees to do the rest of the work.
First cut off 4 legs (A). In order not to do trigonometry and get their exact length, I recommend cutting the beam at an angle of 36 degrees, then attaching the sawn part to the table surface, measuring 40 cm perpendicular to the table surface upwards (or the height you need), making a mark on the beam and in this place cut it at a 36 degree angle. Then we cut the remaining legs according to the size of the first one.
Next, cut the two outer zip ties (B). To do this, I placed two side legs and supported them with scraps of timber that remained after sawing them off so that they would stand. Then, he separated them into different sides to achieve the required distance between their tops (for me it was 110 cm). Next, I measured the distance between the lower edges of the legs, so I got a shorter length (for the lower part) of the outer struts (B). Then I cut the timber at an angle of 36 degrees in the marked places.
Now we cut off the two internal spacers. To do this, you need to attach the two side legs and the outer brace together (again, scraps will help with this). Place a block of wood next to it for the internal spacer and mark where you want to cut at an angle. All that's left to do is work miter saw.
After cutting all 8 pieces, I will glue them together. Ideally, using clamps, you need to make a mechanism that would fix internal corner between each leg and the outer brace is 144 degrees. However, I coated the parts with glue and, using scraps of timber, arranged the parts of the structure by hand. I secured everything with screws until the glue dried.
After the glue dried, I secured the structure with 15 cm wood grouse. They fixed the legs with internal struts. First, I drilled a shallow hole with a diameter of 20 mm so that the head was hidden inside, then a 6 mm preliminary hole and drove the capercaillie into it.
Having hammered a dowel into the holes, I hid the heads of the capercaillie.
After this, tape grinding machine processed the elements of the spacers to smooth out all the irregularities between them, and ground off the protruding remains of the dowels. Then it was time for firing.
Treating wood with fire 
Watch the video on fire treatment
This part of the work leaves a positive impression. Prepare the gas burner according to its instructions. The process itself is quite safe, but it is better to have a fire extinguisher nearby. Just in case.
It's hard to overdo it here. Point the torch nozzle at the wood. The hottest part of the flame (the blue end) should lightly touch the wood surface. The tree turns brown and then turns black. When this part of the job is done, turn off the burner and wet wooden surfaces water (I used a spray bottle). After this, using a brush, you need to lightly remove the burnt, ashen-colored parts.
Once the wood has cooled, apply polishing oil to it. I used Danish oil because it penetrates and hardens into the wood. This makes the charred “alligator skin” on the wood more durable and resistant to wear and tear. You will need a large amount of oil because this technique thoroughly dries out the wood and opens its pores for absorption. I gave it three coats and then had to do it again.
Make a mold for pouring concrete from melamine
This is a mold, so the tabletop will be cast with the top down.
To make the shape you gently do the following:
a) Cut strips of melamine for the sides of the mold to the height of your tabletop + 2 cm. In my case, the tabletop was 4 cm high, so I cut the strips 6 cm wide. It’s easier to do this on sawing machine, but you can use a miter saw if you do everything consistently and carefully. Cut all the strips at the same time so they are the same width. Then we cut the strips to length. Each should be a few centimeters longer than the base. With this protruding part, the side strip will be easier to remove after the concrete has hardened.
b) Cut the base of the melanin mold to the size of the tabletop. In my case it was 120 x 55 cm.
c) Make preliminary holes in the sides, then screw them to the base. I used 30mm self-tapping screws for this.
d) Coat the inside of your mold with the wax mixture.
e) On internal seams Apply silicone caulk and use a cake decorating tool (like a small ball on a stick) to level them out. After the sealant has dried, you need to remove its excess.
IMPORTANT POINT I MISSED: You will need blocks to hold the foam inserts in the solution. They can be attached to the sides of the mold at the last stage of pouring the solution.
Cut foam inserts into concrete 
You need to cut foam inserts from 15mm thick sheet that will be dipped into the solution. In these places the tabletop will be 2.5 cm thick (unlike the edges, where the thickness will be 4 cm). Use a knife to cut out two foam plates required sizes so that they are placed 7-10 cm from each edge of the tabletop. The plate can only be cut, after which it can easily be broken by hand. If you need precision, you can use a miter saw or cut the inserts on a sawing machine.
Mix and pour the solution into the mold 
In my project I used ready-made mixture glass concrete into which you only need to add water. Add water according to instructions. Estimate how much solution you will need.
I ended up with almost 45 kg of dry mixture. I separated about 10kg for the cladding (without fibreglass) and used the remaining 35kg for the base (with fibreglass). For 35 kg of mixture I used 0.7 kg of fiberglass.
When preparing the facing mortar (and for the base), slowly add the mixture to the water. For example, add one third, stir, another third, etc. You can add a little more water (but not too much) if you want to make the solution more fluid. It should pour out like whipped batter.
To achieve the marbled look, I selected three small buckets of mortar. I added a lot of paint to one, after which its color became dark gray (almost black). A small amount of I poured the dye into the rest of the lining solution in the main bucket, and stirred it only a little so that the color was uneven. Then all three color options I poured the solution into the mold one by one and stirred it with my hand until the entire mixture completely covered the bottom with a thin (about 5 mm) layer. The poured facing part should stand for 30 to 60 minutes (depending on the hardening time), after which, when touched, it should seem slightly damp, but quite durable. When pouring mortar for the bottom of the countertop, the facing should not be damaged.
PLEASE NOTE: glass concrete mortar should not be subjected to vibration.
Prepare the solution for the base of the tabletop in a similar way, but after it is ready, add fiberglass to it. Adding fiberglass should be done in parts, for example, a third per mixing. If the solution is too thick, you can add a little water. Pour it into the mold. You can help it spread into all corners with your hand. Again, vibrations are not needed. If the solution is made more fluid, it will distribute itself evenly throughout the form. First, pour in part of the solution without dye (for example, white), then add paint to the rest and mix, leaving it uneven. At this stage, we immerse the foam inserts and secure them inside the solution using bars screwed to the sides of the mold. Then pour in the rest of the solution until the mold is filled.
Sanding the bottom of the mold
Hardening should last at least 24 hours (36 at temperatures below 20 ºC). If the solution has risen above the foam inserts, the excess can be removed with an angle grinder fitted with a diamond-coated disc. Then remove the foam inserts. At this stage it is important not to disassemble the mold, because when sanding it is convenient to align the bottom with its sides.
Removal of mold elements, grinding and impregnation 
Once all the edges of the bottom of the table top are aligned, it's time to take the mold apart. We unscrew all the screws and separate all its parts.
If the sides do not come off very well, you can lightly tap them with a rubber hammer. If you turn the tabletop over, it will be easier to separate the bottom of the mold (now the top). To do this, you can use a plastic spatula (but not a metal one, so as not to leave scratches). If the base of the mold is strongly adhered to the concrete, then most likely the vacuum is preventing release. In this case, a compressor gun will help, the end of which must be inserted between the plastic and concrete. This will break the seal created by the vacuum and the plastic will come off easily.
Then we wet the entire concrete surface of the table with water and sand it by hand. sandpaper P400. When you feel that the surface has become smooth, sanding is enough.
After this, apply impregnation to the concrete. This can be done according to the instructions.
We place the tabletop on a wooden base - and that’s it! 
Lay the tabletop on top wooden base, align it so that it lies perfectly in the center. Carefully lift the sides of the tabletop one by one to apply adhesive to the surfaces of the legs. Before the glue dries, make sure the tabletop is perfectly level.
Watch the video on making a table
Original article in English
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IN modern construction Wood is usually treated with chemicals. But before, houses were built from wood, and some of them still stand to this day. We invite you to get acquainted with the method of processing wood by firing and find out what the advantage of this method is.
How does firing affect wood?
As the subcortical layers of the tree grow, year after year, its fibrous cells die off due to the formation of pores. High porosity, in particular, explains the hygroscopicity of wood - its ability to absorb and release water molecules depending on the difference between its own humidity and the content of water vapor in the surrounding air.
The structure of wood fibers is always uneven: in the process of life, cellulose polymers of varying degrees of stability, as well as sugars and resins of all kinds, are formed in wood. It is the presence of pores and organic nutrient residues that cause the main disadvantages of wood: flammability and the presence of a nutrient medium for the development of bacteria and fungi.
The opportunity to “seal” wood from the influences of the outside world still exists. It is used during creosote boiling of wood or during autoclave heating (thermolysis). When heated to 300-400 °C, almost all unstable hemicellulose formations are destroyed, and they serve as both a “launching pad” for the ignition of wood (forming the primary volume of flammable pyrolysis gases) and the initial breeding ground for the development of colonies of harmful organisms.
It is incredibly difficult to reproduce such wood processing at home. But it is quite possible to partially clog the internal pores and remove most of the unstable cellulose polymers. Even surface firing can heat the outer layer (5-20 mm) of wood enough to melt lignin and resins and form an inorganic crust that protects against most external influences. After proper firing, it is almost impossible to re-ignite the wood without intense and prolonged heating to 500-700 °C. In this case, the residual heat kills microorganisms remaining in the thickness of the wood, and the sintered outer layer prevents the penetration of pathogenic organic matter from the outside.
Decorative value of burnt wood
Much more interesting visual effect from burning wood. It was thanks to him that processing technology was born in Japan. wooden beams under the fancy name “Shu-Sugi-Ban”, and the meticulousness of the Japanese to the interior design of their homes is well known to everyone.
The appearance of wood processed in this way directly depends on the technique and depth of firing, and there are three types. The first - surface firing - allows you to create a brown-brown surface with a golden sheen, on which the wood texture appears quite contrastingly. The chemical and biological resistance of such wood is not high enough, so surface-fired products are used, as a rule, in interior decoration. Due to the fact that the impact on the wood structure is minimal, since firing affects only 2-5 mm below the surface, Decoration Materials can retain their lightness, that is, it is quite possible to process ordinary lining in this way.
Deep firing of wood is used for older lumber, often for boards and beams that have already been in use. This technique helps to “renew” the wood: remove the dried out surface gray layer and efficiently heat the entire thickness of the wood. Due to this, the surface acquires a very expressive appearance: from iridescent graphite to coal-black imitation of rare precious rocks. Perhaps, such a depth of black color cannot be achieved by other methods, which is why deep-fired wood is so highly valued by designers.
The third stage of wood processing is its complete burning. Actually, it ceases to be a tree at all, turning, in fact, into polymer-carbon plastic. At home, unfortunately, complete firing is almost impossible: during charring, the fire will have time to eat almost half the thickness of the workpiece. This wood is used primarily in the production of furniture. The technique guarantees the absolute uniqueness of each product, because the characteristic pattern and the resulting splits cannot be reproduced in any way.
What species and what type of wood is best to burn?
Generally any wood is suitable for firing, but connoisseurs of subtle visual delights will most like species with an expressive and unusual texture. IN original technology of Japanese origin, cedar was originally used exclusively. Interesting view has burnt hornbeam and beech boards: due to high density Only the top layer of such wood burns through, resulting in anthracite and gray tints of color.
More popular valuable species, such as alder, maple and poplar, exhibit an elongated texture after firing, and walnut or larch can form additional finer textured patterns. Burnt birch will be highly appreciated by bath or sauna lovers: due to firing, its surface becomes very porous and acquires a low heat capacity, so after heating it does not burn the skin.
It is also surprising that, depending on the degree of firing and the origin of the wood, even the same species can manifest itself in completely different ways. To the use of burnt wood in decorative finishing you should take a thorough approach: stock up on samples different types from different sources and, after a series of experiments, come to a certain choice.
Remember also that the wood must be properly prepared before firing. It should have low humidity, preferably no more than 12-13%, and also be natural, that is, without traces of painting or opening with drying oil. Otherwise, the absorbed resinous substances will appear unevenly on the surface and disrupt the appearance. Of course, a lot here depends on the depth and time of fire treatment.
Charcoal firing in the field
The simplest method of fire treatment is best suited for deep firing. Processed this way decorative beams, and wood siding and block house for exterior finishing. Due to deep heating, the wood becomes impervious to atmospheric influences, and the influence sunlight It doesn't affect her at all.
For charcoal firing, dig a narrow trench about 30 cm deep and a width corresponding to the size of the parts being processed. A fire is built in a ditch, and as it burns, the wood is constantly stirred, achieving rapid charring. After this, the ditch must be covered either sheet iron, or a strip of OSB to temporarily prevent the access of oxygen and stop combustion.
Before laying the workpiece in the coals, you need to rake out the central furrow so that during firing, not only the lower part, but also small areas on the sides are processed. The holding time of the workpiece depends on the thickness and can range from two to three to fifteen minutes. After this, the workpiece is turned over to the opposite side, and then, after maintaining the same period of time, it is burned on the sides.
It will be easier to remove the workpiece with a pair of steel wire hooks. After the wood is removed from the coals, it is immediately doused with water.
How to burn wood with a gas torch
Using gas burners is much easier. These can be either hand-held camping lamps or regular nozzles connected to the cylinder via a hose.
It is convenient to process wood with gas only by surface firing. Deeper aging in the fire will not be sufficiently uniform, as a result the product may have variable thickness and width. In addition, deep heating will require quite a lot of gas, while coals cost almost nothing.
When surface processing the wood, the very edge of the light blue torch is touched. The movements are roughly the same as when painting. At the same time, it is quite easy to control the firing depth based on the degree of darkening.
Firing is followed by wetting, but in this case an ordinary hand sprayer will suffice. It is important that the time interval between fire treatment and water spraying is the same for all areas of each part, so carry out the treatment sequentially.
Finishing of burnt wood
After the wood has cooled, soot and soot are removed from it. For this purpose, brushes made of brass wire are used so as not to strip off excess. During machining Texturing or so-called artificial aging of wood can also be carried out.
Cleaned products can be installed immediately. Additional processing is needed not so much to protect the structure of the wood, but to preserve its color and overall appearance after years, as well as to eliminate soiling. For interior decoration the lining is coated with linseed or hemp oil in several layers. Wood for facade and others external works Coat 1-2 times with colorless nitrocellulose varnish with the addition of synthetic wax: either with a brush along the grain or with a spray gun.
Techniques for burning and structuring wood
Structuring is a technique that allows you to most clearly highlight and show the natural beauty of wood. This method is often called “brushing” - from English word"brush" - brush, clean, clean.
Brushing is used for those types of wood that have a good structure, visible to the naked eye. The annual rings of such wood should be distinguishable and spaced at a considerable distance from each other. The point of structuring is to select soft fibers from the top layer of the wood surface. In place of soft layers, depressions appear, and harder layers form ridges. In this case, the surface becomes embossed and textured.
The most suitable wood for structuring is wood that has low density, uneven texture, and, oddly enough, has some “defects” that often reduce the cost of the material, but after brushing give amazing results. decorative effects. Such defects include the presence of knots, curling (winding or random arrangement of wood fibers), curls (curvature of the annual layers around the knots), eyes (traces of dormant buds that have not developed into shoots).
Types of wood suitable for structuring: pine, spruce, larch, oak, ash, walnut,
Not suitable for brushing: beech, pear, cherry, juniper, teak, maple, alder.
Structuring is carried out in two ways - chemical and mechanical. With the chemical method special compounds are applied to the surface of the wood, soften it, and then mechanical scraping of the soft layers occurs. Although it is faster and easier, the chemical structuring process has its big disadvantages. For chemical brushing, ammonia, shumnit and other far from “soft” agents are used, which means that work must be done in special protection and in well-ventilated areas. In short, it’s all disgusting, disgusting, and it doesn’t suit us. Therefore, let's move on to mechanical brushing. It can be manual or machine. The latter is good for large-scale work or for mass production - parquet, walls, beams. The layers are sampled using special devices or brush attachments on a drill.
What about us, should we make beautiful boards and boxes, so we’ll do everything with our hands... For manual brushing you need a beautiful wooden blank with a smooth surface, naturally, a brush and a wide bristle brush - flute. The brush you will need is this:
You can buy it at most hardware stores and construction stores, and many people have it at home - it is used to clean surfaces from old paint.
Wood structuring can be soft or hard. With soft structuring, the sampling of fibers occurs to a shallow depth; it only “indicates” the grain of the wood. This treatment is good for subsequent varnishing. tinting, decoupage on unprimed wood, Rigid structuring is performed to great depth, sometimes in 2-3 steps, the depressions and ridges are clearly visible, the workpiece resembles old board, lying for a long time open air. After such brushing, the wood can be tinted, giving it an aged look, most suitable for the bare grain technique.
Well, the theoretical part is over, I propose to move on to practice. We all know how to tint, paint, stain and wax wood, so I won’t talk about that. And show brushing on simple tree- boring. I would like to show brushing after firing - this is a rarer technique, but quite accessible and not complicated.
To do this, however, you will need one device - a gas burner. Now you can buy a wonderful thing, like this Dremel Boshevsky
It is refilled with gas from a regular lighter can, and the refill lasts for a long time. Just don’t forget about safety precautions - after all, the flame there has a very decent temperature! By the way. There are a lot of different attachments in the set, very useful. With this burner you can burn wood and leather (pyrograph), you can solder, you can clean old paint, a lot of things, I haven’t fully studied it yet...
Now let's get started. So, we need a piece of wood (preferably pine) with a beautiful fiber structure, a burner, a brush, and a flute. Work is best carried out on outdoors(after all, there will be smoke, fire again, and there will be a lot of dust). I burn in the apartment - and on the balcony with open frames, there is a little smoke, but not a disaster, and the smell is pleasant. And the household doesn’t mind, knowing that I know how to handle this device and won’t set the apartment on fire. But I’m already going to do the sampling on another one - an open balcony in the common hall, where there is a breeze and dust doesn’t fly into the apartment.
I found a pine Armagnac box on the farm, so I’ll work on it.
Turn on the burner and begin to burn the surface. Firing should be carried out evenly, without staying in one place for a long time, but also not “swiftly” with your hand, allowing the wood to burn evenly, without heavily burned or light unburnt spots. Choose the degree of “charring” yourself - it can range from slight “smoking” to complete blackening. Just so that everything is the same. I like it stronger, but it's a matter of taste.
Hold the torch like a handle, do not strain your hand so that the movements are smooth and not jerky. And don’t be afraid - the burner handle does not heat up, just don’t put your other hand under the flame.
Sometimes there are resin pockets and drips in the wood, the resin begins to burn - do not let it do this. just blow out the flames. Otherwise, the wood will burn more strongly in this place, and then there will be a stain. Knots and other “beauties” are sometimes roasted worse; this place can be burned several times for uniformity.
This is what the box looks like
and this is a pine board from my early work, I will also show the result later 
When firing is completed, we move on to sampling. You will need a brush and a stiff brush. A brush is needed to sweep away the scraped out sawdust.
Place the workpiece horizontally, brush along the fired surface strictly along the grain, in one direction, with long strokes from start to finish. If it is possible to secure the workpiece, then you can work with two hands, the other pressing on the top of the brush and creating additional force. If you work with one hand, then be very careful - take care of your other hand! The bristles on the brush are metallic and sharp, one careless movement and you will need iodine and a bandage, and the workpiece will be “protonated” into a different color, which will be difficult to get rid of. So “Senya, take care of your hand!”
By the way, during normal brushing, without firing, to reduce the amount of dust and make work easier, the surface of the workpiece can be moistened with water. But don't get too wet, just spray or go over with a wet brush and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Soft fibers are easier to remove.
After scrubbing a little, we take the flute in our hand and clean off the sawdust. You should not brush with free, random strokes, but again along the fibers, in the direction in which you worked with the brush. And not with stroking movements, as we apply paint, but “against the pile,” as if knocking out, picking out dust from the recesses with bristles. If you do it differently, the dust particles are smoothed out in the depressions and are driven deeper.
After we have cleaned the workpiece, we will begin scraping further, here you can turn it over and work with the brush in the opposite direction. But again, only along the fibers, only with long movements. If the brush is unsuccessfully brushed against the fibers, deep, noticeable scratches will remain. Do we need this?
Like this, we evenly scrape and clean off the sawdust until that moment. until we like the color and texture of the wood. You can stop a little earlier, you can stop later. Here is the box after firing and structuring:
It can still be scraped, it will be more contrasting, but even now it is already clear that the soft layers are selected faster and easier. This blank can now be tinted or something else done with it. But this was a one-time firing and brushing - the result was a soft structuring, the relief did not stand out much. If you want something more “extreme”, you can do a second firing and scrape again. The result will be something like this (these are fragments of the board that I showed in charred form). These are fragments, an angled view, but the relief is clearly visible:
And this is the view from above
In general, I am a fan of rigid structuring; I do not tint finished products. I cover it with wax or wax varnish. I like the roughness and “naturalness” of the material. But this is my choice, and most still use tinting, staining, bleaching and other decorative techniques.
My works in this technique are simple, rough and unpretentious... The owls, however, are painted in oil, but I have already written about them before.
