I made shou sugi ban recently, and the results were very pleasing. It was flat-sawn pine, and after a strong burn and deep scrub, the harder growth rings were raised significantly and very dark. I love the effect. Why does yours have such fine and straight lines? Is it quartersawn? Or was it planed with a combing blade?
Hi Gab...A student today found this video and asked about it... Thought I would drop a note about what "Shou Sugi Ban"...isn't... in case you may wish to edit the title? There simply is no such thing as "Shou Sugi Ban." Historic traditional searing/charring modalities, of which there are many, are not to be confused with traditional Yakisugi 焼杉 (sometimes written improperly: 焼き杉) grilled cedar also called: “Shou-sugi-ban” erroneously by Europeans and those in North America...There is the 炭付 (Sumi-tsuki) “with charcoal” heavy burn method, or the 磨き (Migaki) (焼杉美杉 Yakesugi Misugi) “polishing” smoothed out method...バーナー焼き Bānā-yaki “burner - “flame painting” method....鰐 (Wani) “crocodile” effect…etc. Yakisugi can only be achieved with a limited range of Cypress species found on the islands of Japan and is a very unique process found within several methods of crafting guilds. The most commonly seen being where three planks of wood get bound together to form a long triangle and a fire is started in the resulting tube. There are several other methods, but they are for very specific formats and within context to only yakisugi and not the charing modalities found within other cultures. This technique works well only when you have similar boards, as it's complicated to set up when boards have different widths and lengths. Here is a great link to a colleague's information on this topic: William Beck wrote it in 2019 nakamotoforestry.com/yakisugi-or-shou-sugi-ban-learn-what-you-should-call-it-and-why/?fbclid=IwAR1SKdS3Ffe1xaM7JxNGIQbjcDLBOwSUqtHcnu3BOZaZeLvfVhZm2vWDzFE
I'm using charcoal chopped into pieces around 1" square, nothing smaller than 1 cm or so because it impedes the flow of air through the coal bed and you can't get a very hot fire. Ideally the base of the forge is charcoal fines, nice kept nice and dry. The tuyere should angle down slightly as it enters the forge, and it doesn't hurt to have it enter from the side a couple of cm from the packed base. Also I have to clean the fire pit out after a day of forging or, as you say, it gets clogged. Sometimes if I've been forging for a while and don't want to stop to clean I'll give the coal bed a heavy blast from the fuigo, lifting the whole coal bed and easing the airflow a bit. Hope that helps!
Gabriel Dwiggins thnk you for answer, i hope that charcoal will help me, blacksmith coal is too small, and i forget that i have hot air push into forge and that is the problem
+jhon doe My fuigo is based on one seen in another video, search "John Burt fuigo". I also drew up a partial set of plans: granitemountainwoodcraft.com/2015/07/08/designing-fuigo-japanese-box-bellows/
lovely, quiet, and well proportioned!
Crossed Heart Forge - islandblacksmith Is this how you do it? I watch all your stuff!
gabe's fuigo are constructed much more neatly than mine, one of these days he might build me one ^____^
Great videos Sir. This Fuigo in this video, did you make it? If so do you have a video on the build or the link to making it. Sounds perfect.
great and wonderful!!! you was a japanese in your past life n.n
I made shou sugi ban recently, and the results were very pleasing. It was flat-sawn pine, and after a strong burn and deep scrub, the harder growth rings were raised significantly and very dark. I love the effect. Why does yours have such fine and straight lines? Is it quartersawn? Or was it planed with a combing blade?
Hi Gab...A student today found this video and asked about it...
Thought I would drop a note about what "Shou Sugi Ban"...isn't... in case you may wish to edit the title?
There simply is no such thing as "Shou Sugi Ban."
Historic traditional searing/charring modalities, of which there are many, are not to be confused with traditional Yakisugi 焼杉 (sometimes written improperly: 焼き杉) grilled cedar also called: “Shou-sugi-ban” erroneously by Europeans and those in North America...There is the 炭付 (Sumi-tsuki) “with charcoal” heavy burn method, or the 磨き (Migaki) (焼杉美杉 Yakesugi Misugi) “polishing” smoothed out method...バーナー焼き Bānā-yaki “burner - “flame painting” method....鰐 (Wani) “crocodile” effect…etc.
Yakisugi can only be achieved with a limited range of Cypress species found on the islands of Japan and is a very unique process found within several methods of crafting guilds. The most commonly seen being where three planks of wood get bound together to form a long triangle and a fire is started in the resulting tube. There are several other methods, but they are for very specific formats and within context to only yakisugi and not the charing modalities found within other cultures. This technique works well only when you have similar boards, as it's complicated to set up when boards have different widths and lengths.
Here is a great link to a colleague's information on this topic: William Beck wrote it in 2019
nakamotoforestry.com/yakisugi-or-shou-sugi-ban-learn-what-you-should-call-it-and-why/?fbclid=IwAR1SKdS3Ffe1xaM7JxNGIQbjcDLBOwSUqtHcnu3BOZaZeLvfVhZm2vWDzFE
can you tell me the sizes of that thing? Base, Roof, sides and ends.
may i ask you, i used the same forge,but my coal is clogs pipe
I'm using charcoal chopped into pieces around 1" square, nothing smaller than 1 cm or so because it impedes the flow of air through the coal bed and you can't get a very hot fire. Ideally the base of the forge is charcoal fines, nice kept nice and dry. The tuyere should angle down slightly as it enters the forge, and it doesn't hurt to have it enter from the side a couple of cm from the packed base. Also I have to clean the fire pit out after a day of forging or, as you say, it gets clogged. Sometimes if I've been forging for a while and don't want to stop to clean I'll give the coal bed a heavy blast from the fuigo, lifting the whole coal bed and easing the airflow a bit. Hope that helps!
Gabriel Dwiggins
thnk you for answer, i hope that charcoal will help me, blacksmith coal is too small, and i forget that i have hot air push into forge and that is the problem
I like you Gab, your alright.
Is this the traditional tecnique?
can you give me the measurements of fuigo please
+jhon doe My fuigo is based on one seen in another video, search "John Burt fuigo". I also drew up a partial set of plans: granitemountainwoodcraft.com/2015/07/08/designing-fuigo-japanese-box-bellows/
+Gabriel Dwiggins many thanks gabriel👍👍
Kind of like making toast!