Friendly Fire
Shou sugi ban is the dramatic technique of burning timber to a dark char to preserve it, making it fire, weather and pest resistant.
The technique originates from Japan, a country where ritual and process are paramount to their culture and trade skills are an artform. It is easy to imagine a time pre-industrialisation the whole world over when the price of carpentry was high and the dividends on any process of preservation equally high.
Shou sugi ban, also known as yaki-sugi, translates literally to ‘heat cypress with fire’. Thermally modifying timber is uniquely
Japanese compared with other treatments which have
