Shou Sugi Ban

Left to right: white pine, yellow pine, cherry, ash, white oak, maple.  I also added western red cedar and birch plywood, not pictured here.

Using a propane torch, outside, on a non-flammable work surface, with a bucket of water nearby.

One face got a light "tiger stripe" scorch with a minimum of heat to achieve a consistent surface. The other side got a deeper second pass aiming for "alligator" texture. All buffed with a cotton rag to remove soot and loose debris.

After buffing, half of each face got a coat of boiled linseed oil (a.k.a. "BLO"). The other half was left unfinished. 

A nice "tiger stripe" effect. The denser growth rings darkened first. Also some sap boiled out. 

Strongly washboarded surface. Un-oiled portion has a graphite-like sheen. 

Tiger striping not as strongly contrasted as yellow pine. 

Oiled side a bit more matte, un-oiled side pretty shiny.

Washboard texture is more pronounced on side with two passes. 

Nice tiger stripe color contrast right off the torch, but buffing it evened out the colors a bit. A little bit of washboard texture. 

Alligator texture buffed off, leaving strongly washboarded texture and a nice sheen.

Look at that curly grain!

Like maple, very consistent surface. Scorched quickly and evenly. Warm color shows through a bit. 

"Alligator" texture rubbed right off and left a slightly wavy surface. Cooler black. 

Ripply texture on more heavily burned face.

Very consistent carbonized surface, nice dark black. BLO added a bit of sheen.

"Alligator" texture survived buffing. 

Corners burned away quite a bit to achieve the alligator texture.

Distinct difference between growth rings, nice and shiny both oiled and un-oiled.

Alligator texture is a little inconsistent (maybe a bigger torch would work better?) and the corners burned away a lot. 

Shiny!

Even color, retains slightly warmer undertone, minor washboarding. Note that this board had some checking before it was burned. 

Very similar to lighter burning--cooler, deeper black. Similar texture. 

Corners burned away quite a bit.

The plywood stood up a light scorching better than I would have predicted. A bit of a warmer color un-oiled, closer to real black when oiled. 

Deeper burning started causing bubbles under the surface veneer, and eventually a chunk flaked off.

Veneer failure. Also, the edges held up surprisingly well.