Jodee from Inspire Woodcraft shared the woodworking tips featured in this video.
Jodee demonstrates a modern spin on traditional shou sugi ban by combining controlled charring with mica powders to create a metallic, two-tone finish that highlights charred texture.
The video covers wood selection, burn styles, mica application techniques, and several approaches to sealing the result.
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What is Shou Sugi Ban 2.0?
This approach keeps the core idea of shou sugi ban—charring wood to bring out texture and durability—while adding mica powders to the char to create vivid metallic highlights.
Jodee frames it as an evolution rather than a replacement of the traditional technique, using mica as an accent that settles into cracks and raised islands of char.
The goal is decorative accenting rather than large-scale cladding, and the method works best as a feature or accent rather than an entire furniture surface. Jodee emphasizes treating the technique as an aesthetic option that plays with light and contrast.
Wood choices and how they behave
Choice of species matters; Jodee works mainly with cedar and pine and highlights a modified pine (Accoya/Koya-like) as an ideal option when available.
Each species responds differently: cedar chars into a soft, powdery surface while pine tends to produce flatter, more uniform char areas.
The modified pine that Jodee calls out stays harder after burning and holds char without shedding, which makes it easier to work with when applying mica or sealing finishes. These differences affect how mica adheres and how aggressive the final sealing strategy needs to be.
Burning technique: heat intensity and texture
The amount and intensity of heat change the texture of the charred surface significantly; a small, steady flame produces fine detail while a larger, hotter flame produces bigger islands and deeper cracks. Jodee demonstrates both approaches and notes that the same patterns repeat across species, with only the scale of texture changing.
Understanding the look produced by each torching style allows makers to choose a surface that best showcases mica highlights, whether favoring subtle detail or high-contrast, bulbous char islands. Jodee recommends trying small samples first to determine the aesthetic before committing to a full piece.
Applying mica powder: colors, methods, and effects
Jodee uses mica powders to fill the char’s crevices and paint the raised char with metallic color, experimenting with brands that come in shake-pour bottles for easier application. The technique ranges from sprinkling and troweling mica into grooves to intentionally rubbing mica into the top layer of char for a painted effect.
Cedar’s fragile char can mix with mica when wiped aggressively, but this can be used creatively to create two-tone surfaces: a painted foreground and a mica-filled background in the cracks. For flatter surfaces like pine, a paper towel wipe and light hand touch-up usually do the job more cleanly.
Sealing and finishing: pros and cons
Locking mica into char is the major finishing challenge, and Jodee explores several options including CA (super) glue, epoxy, and spray oil-based polyurethane. CA glue soaks into char and mica to bind them, but concerns about fumes and handling make it a less favorable choice for some makers.
Epoxy provides a strong seal and self-leveling surface, but Jodee recommends a thin seal coat first so subsequent epoxy layers adhere properly and avoid adhesion problems common in raw or heavily charred surfaces. High-distance spray polyurethane worked well in trials when multiple light coats were built up slowly to encapsulate the mica.
Brushing poly directly with a brush-on product tended to dig mica out of grooves, so spraying from a distance and then adding protective wipe-on coats, or using sealed epoxy layers, produces the most durable results.
Jodee advises testing finishes on samples and watching for color flattening in lower-light conditions, since some mica colors are very reflective only in direct light.
Practical tips, tools, and workflow
Simple shop tools and consumables—paper towels, a business card for troweling, mica in pourable bottles, and torches—are the backbone of this workflow.
Jodee also demonstrates hand-wiping techniques to peel excess mica back off fragile cedar using a damp paper towel, which prevents unnecessary blending into the char unless the effect is desired.
Working in sections makes multicolor work achievable, and pre-painting a substrate (as with gloss paint) will accept mica differently than raw wood, offering alternative looks.
Jodee cautions that some woods, like hemlock or cooler-burned surfaces, did not respond well in tests and tended to disintegrate when mica was applied and wiped.
Applications, limitations, and styling ideas
This technique reads as an accent finish best used sparingly—on wall panels, small furniture features, or decorative elements—rather than broad functional surfaces that will take heavy wear. Jodee suggests accent walls or small inserts where the metallic sheen can catch light and provide contrast against smoother materials.
Lighting plays a major role in perceived vibrancy: mica can glow under direct light and flatten in shadow, so placement and lighting should be part of the design decision. The method is less suited to hardwoods that don’t char similarly and to pieces that require high abrasion resistance unless properly encapsulated with epoxy or poly.
Overall takeaways
Shou Sugi Ban 2.0 is a creative approach that combines traditional charring with contemporary finishes to produce striking, high-contrast accents. Jodee’s testing highlights the importance of species selection, burn style, careful mica application, and appropriate sealing to get reliable, repeatable results.
The technique rewards experimentation and small test pieces and can be adapted to many decorative contexts as long as makers account for material behavior and finish durability.
Safety and ventilation are important considerations when using CA glue, torches, and spray finishes, so proper shop precautions are recommended.
Support Jodee by visiting his online store here: https://inspirewoodcraft.com/collections/all.