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  • It’s a preservation technique called Shou Sugi Ban

    Here's a shower tray I made earlier.

    It's not that hard to get right but it is a pig of job to do properly. Pure tung oil is completely natural (it comes from nuts) but it stinks!

  • Why - because our shower tray should have been done like that in the first place (we have larch which has been Shou Sugi Ban'd elsewhere in the flat) but wasn't, so it went a little bit rotten. This was a way of saving it and making it impervious to water for ~ 80 years.

    How? Here is my easy 19 step plan!

    1. Prep wood by sanding it (not needed for new wood)
    2. Buy a handheld blow torch and try to do it with that but it keeps going out.
    3. Borrow a big fuck off pro blow torch from @dbr instead
    4. Burn it
    5. Brush the soot off with a wire brush.
    6. Burn it again.
    7. Brush the soot off with a wire brush again.
    8. Rinse with a hosepipe when done.
    9. Let dry.
    10. First coat of tung oil (cut with white spirits to make it dry faster as tung oil takes AGES to dry)
    11. Let it dry.
    12. Second coat of tung oil (cut with a bit less white spirit)
    13. Let it dry
    14. Third coat of tung oil (cut with progressively less white spirit)
    15. Let it dry
    16. Fourth coat of tung oil (no white spirit this time)
    17. Dispose of your rags carefully because they can spontaneously combust, lol.
    18. Let it dry for a very, very, very long time.
    19. Admire your handywork!

    Learnings:

    • The bigger the blow torch the better.
    • It's a shit load of work.
    • Tung oil stinks despite coming from nuts.
    • Tung oil takes a very, very long time to dry.
    • Does look good though.
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