Imitating an Imitation 



Japanese craftsmen have for centuries made fortunes by 

 cleverly charring sugi wood to imitate driftwood. 

 Americans are now applying the process to our own cypress 



By Robert H. Moulton 



UNDOUBTEDLY a good many of us 

 own specimens of so-called "Japanese 

 driftwood," which is not driftwood 

 at all, but clever imitations made from the 

 sugi tree. 

 For many 

 centuries 

 Japanese 

 craftsmen 

 have plied 

 a thrifty 

 trade in 

 this wood. 

 In the be- 

 ginning 

 they gath- 

 ered genu- 

 ine drift- 

 wood from 

 the sea and 

 turned i t 

 to uses of 

 beauty 

 without 

 treating it 

 in any way. Its 

 embossed-like surface 

 . was due to natural agents 

 The chemical action of the salt 

 of the sea and the long-continued churling 

 of the waves ate out and carried away 

 the softer parts of the wood and left the 

 harder grain. 



However, the supply of driftwood was 

 limited, and its evolution from the fresh 

 wood by the action of the sun and the sea, 

 covered a long period of time. The crafty 

 Orientals then conceived the idea of pro- 

 ducing artificial driftwood. This was ac- 

 complished by charring the fresh wood with 

 fire and then by rubbing it with rice-straw. 

 The artificial driftwood had all the appear- 

 ance of the genuine, and it was long before 

 the imposition was discovered. Finally, 

 however, a noted scholar and traveler, 

 the late John S. Bradstreet of Minneapolis, 

 discovered the secret. He then set about 

 to find an American wood capable of tak- 

 ing the sugi finish. After many experi- 

 ments Mr. Bradstreet discovered that 

 cypress was practically the only one that 



would stand up under the sugi process. 



The process of treating cypress to secure 



the sugi finish is so simple that it can be 



carried out by any one. The only tools 



necessary 

 are a gaso- 

 line torch 

 of the kind 

 used by 

 plumbersor 

 painters, an 



The process con- 

 sists simply in char- 

 ring the wood with 

 a gasoline torch, 

 scraping it after- 

 ward with a steel 

 wire brush and pol- 

 ishing it by rubbing 



ordina- 

 ry steel- 

 w i r e 

 brush, 

 and a 

 small scrubbing-brubh. The torch should 

 have a large and exceedingly hot blue 

 flame, since success in securing the desired 

 effects depends largely upon the speed 

 with which the burning or charring of 

 the wood is done. Cypress wood, like the 

 wood of the sugi, is close-grained, and, 

 when cut into flat sawed boards its ap- 

 pearance is very beautiful. The spring 

 growth is much harder than the summer 

 growth, and when heat is applied it merely 

 discolors the harder grain while the softer 

 summer wood is completely charred. 

 All the charred portion is then brushed 

 out by the wire brush. This leaves 

 the wood entirely covered with a fine 

 powder which must be removed with the 

 small scrubbing-brush. Cloth should never 

 be used for this purpose as it has the effect 

 of rubbing the powder into the wood. 



Charring the wood properly is perhaps 

 the most difficult part of the work, although 

 it is also important that the rubbing be 

 done evenly so that the tone will become 

 uniform. The more the soft grain is rubbed 

 out, the lighter will the general tone become. 



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