Shou Sugi Ban + glue

[William Hamilton]

I'm planning on doing a modern style sliding barn door in my home. I'm going to use cypress vertically, join them with biscuits, and use a shou sugi ban technique and timber oil as a finish. Since I'll be heating the wood, should I do that technique prior and then join with biscuits? My concern is heating the glue and reactivating it. I usually use Titebond III.
For anyone unfamiliar with shou sugi ban, here is a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhvR8KwWhw
Thanks!

[Peter Quinn]

I guess this leaves me asking more questions. Is this for exterior? Or just for aesthetics? If it is exterior you might consider using a torrified species, ash is quite similar in appearance to the cypress that is traditionally used in Japan. Ash also wire brushes well to expose the open grain. My concern for the door is not the glue but all the water being used in the rinse process and what effect that may have on the doors flatness. Tite bond III requires almost 250 degrees to reactivate, once fully cured it cross links and is fairly temperature stable. Of course it is plastic, and you are burning the wood.

Short answer, if this is for interior/aesthetics/ just becaus you want to try it, I'd burn first, join later. If this is for exterior, I'd consider putting aside the ancient ways and looking into torrified wood. You need tight joints on an exterior door to keep out weather/vermin/wind etc, not sure how to weather seal a barn door as a start.

[William Hamilton]

Thanks Peter. its for an interior door, ie. mostly aesthetic. Its going to be an interesting Saturday.

[Frederick Skelly]

Man, Williàm, this looks like a lotta work! But if you're going to do it, I'd sure like to see some pics when it's finished.
Fred

[Eric Schmid]

Video makes me wonder how this was done before propane burners! Here is a video showing burning after joining. No idea what glue they've used. One problem I can see with burning before assembly is alignment of the faces. You'll not have the option to plane the face flat if the wood is already charred. If you're going to burn before, you obviously will want to avoid the edges you're joining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd2MavbyLok

[Dave Richards]

I haven't used this technique although I'd like to try it sometime. My first thought about your door is to skip gluing the pieces altogether. That would help you get around all kinds of possible problems. Use cleats as is traditional with wooden barn doors. If you want to avoid or reduce the use of hardware, attach the horizontal cleats with sliding dovetails. The diagonal cleat could be attached with wooden pegs if you want.

[Tom Ewell]

Geeze, used to do similar to this back in the 70's for that 'distressed' look, didn't know the process actually had a name.
'course we also beat up the wood with bits of hardware, chunked it up with hatchets and the like, did some sanding before the burn effect came into play.

[William Hamilton]

So I finally got around to building the door, torching it, and putting on a coat of penofin oil. I put biscuits every 6".
I'm happy to report that torching it did not cause any separation or movement of the edge gluing, biscuits etc.. I will be adding two 36" x 2" x 3/8" stainless steel cleats to help keep it flat, along with really long, modern stainless steel pulls.
DoorShouSugiBanLOW.jpg

[Chris Padilla]

Cool. The fireplace mantel in my parents house was done like this.

[David Wong]

Thanks for the followup.

Video makes me wonder how this was done before propane burners!

Here is a video from a popular japanese show "Before After", where an architect is enlisted to redo a problematic living situation. Show charing of siding...

[Eric Schmid]

Cool video. Nothing like handling a live fire👹

A couple of days after voicing my curiosity I found my shop neighbor standing over a fire kettle attempting to replicate the method shown in the video; totally unrelated to our discussion here. He quickly abandoned the old method and went with the weed burner. There does not seem to be much control over the depth of burn with the traditional method.

Nice work on the table William. Thanks for doing the research on the glue integrity and posting your results.

[William Hamilton]

good stuff.. The weed burner is probably easier. Its a little tricky getting a consistent char over a wide piece, but, I think it turned out ok. Here is the finished door in place. Now to finish the painting I started a few years back to cover that pesky electrical panel....BathroomDoor.jpg

[Jamie Buxton]

Those steel straps are likely to cause the door to cup. The wood is going to try to expand and contract across the grain with changes in atmospheric humidity. The steel will not change. The result is that the door will cup.