So, I decided to give this ‘brandon burns’ thing a try a while back. I’d stumbled across it somewhere, maybe on a forum or a blog, can’t quite recall where exactly. Looked like an interesting way to treat wood, give it a bit of character, you know? The name stuck with me, ‘brandon burns’. Sounded specific, maybe named after the fella who came up with it.
Anyway, I figured, why not? I had some spare bits of wood lying around from a previous project – just some plain pine boards. Nothing special. I thought I’d practice on those first. The basic idea seemed straightforward enough: apply heat, burn the surface slightly, then clean it up to make the wood grain pop. Sounded pretty cool, actually. Rustic vibes and all that.
Getting Started
I gathered my gear. Found my trusty old propane torch, the handheld kind you use for sweating copper pipes or loosening rusty bolts. Safety first, so I grabbed my gloves and safety glasses, and made sure I had a bucket of water handy, just in case things got a bit too fiery. Cleared a space out on the concrete floor of my workshop.
Here’s how it went down:
- I clamped the first piece of pine down.
- Fired up the torch, keeping the flame moving, just like I saw in some vague instructions I half-remembered.
- Tried to get that even, light scorch across the surface.
Where Things Got Smoky
Well, let me tell you, it wasn’t quite as simple as it sounded. That pine board went from lightly toasted to full-on charcoal black real quick in spots. Controlling the heat was much trickier than I thought. One minute it looked like nothing was happening, the next, poof, way too dark.
My first attempt was patchy. Some parts barely browned, others were deeply charred. Then I tried brushing it, like I thought I was supposed to. Used a stiff wire brush. Man, the soot! It went everywhere. And underneath? It didn’t exactly look ‘rustic’ or ‘characterful’. More like ‘accidentally set on fire’.
I gave it another go on a different board. This time I tried holding the torch further away, moving faster. Better, maybe? But still inconsistent. And then, on the third try, I must have lingered a bit too long in one spot. The wood actually caught fire properly. Little flames started licking up. Good thing I had that water bucket nearby! Doused it quickly, but the piece was ruined. Smelled awful too.
It definitely lived up to the ‘burns’ part of its name, just maybe not in the way I intended. I ended up with a couple of badly scorched pieces of wood, a workshop smelling like a campfire gone wrong, and a slight sense of defeat.
Made me think, you know? Sometimes these techniques you see online, they look great when someone experienced does them. But they skip over the learning curve, the fiddly bits, the things that go wrong when you’re just starting out. Maybe this ‘Brandon’ guy, if he’s real, had years of practice. Or maybe he used a different type of wood, or a different kind of torch. Who knows?
It’s a bit like that time I tried following a complex recipe I found online. Looked amazing in the pictures, but mine ended up looking… well, let’s just say ‘deconstructed’. Sometimes the simple, tried-and-tested ways are simple for a reason. They just work, without the drama.
So, the ‘brandon burns’ experiment? Yeah, I did that. Got the smoky t-shirt to prove it. Think I’ll stick to sanding and staining for my wood projects for the time being. Less chance of needing the fire extinguisher.
