Burnt Birch ?

You got me!

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

One of my lumber suppliers gave me a board about a year and a half ago. Have not yet tried to do anything with it. Don’t know anything about it. It looks like it is processed in some way. Might have to go out and mess with it.

-- Oldworld, Fair Oaks, Ca

About a year ago , I was at a millwork supplier and he showed me a piece of “mystery wood” It was the Burnt Birch that you are referring to . If I remember correctly , he told me that it was actually cooked in an oven at high temperatures to remove all moisture from it and that made the Birch very stable for use as exterior mouldings , etc. , and that the “cooking” process somehow sealed all the pores in the wood making it rot resistant because it can no longer absorb moisture . Of course it smelled like it was burnt to me as well , but the dark , rich color was attractive. If I get a chance , I will try to contact him for more info for all of us to share : )

-- Dusty56@comcast.net

I have some that I used on a couple of small projects. I’m told its 4-6% dried 3 times long and much hotter than normal. This is what I found when working with this wood.
Where a mask, everything you do will produce small chips and lots of dust.
Every thing will smell like burnt wood.
Gluing has not been a problem.
Sanding is no problem.
The pieces I have seem to be a light green when the sun hits it. When I talked to my suppler more about this wood he told me that a couple of shops are using it for molding quite successfully.
I hope this helps.

-- Andy Stark

About 2 years ago I came across a site about “toasted hardwoods.” Can’t remember all the details, or find the site at a glance, but it showed several species that were “toasted” and were browner than plain kiln dried lumber. I do remeber the caveat to let it acclimate since it’s very dry after toasting. Guess it didn’t take off too well because this is the first time I’ve seen it mentioned since then.

Here’s one link:
http://curiouswoods.com/wood--Roasted-Hardwood--RH

Apparently it comes from an outfit in Quebec, or maybe more place too.

Thanks for the info all, super helpful !