Burning The Deadwood

BrianBay9

Gabriel,

I had never heard of it until I attended Walter's workshop. I spent all weekend playing with the technique on several trees and I really like the results. I was always having trouble deciding exactly how to carve to make the jin look natural. With this technique it doesn't seem to matter much how far off I am, the flame and wood conspire to generate a natural effect anyway. I figure it saved me months of carving, wire brush and sanding work.

Bart is right about protecting the foliage and live wood. The trick is to find a butane torch with a very finely pointed flame. Then turn you tree so that there is nothing directly above the area you're burning - heat rises. Heat until the wood glows red at the surface, even flames. Then use a stiff wire brush. The wood remains brown after all this, so use lime-sulfur to bleach it back to white if you need to.

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