I’ve recently been watching Jesper Makes, a Danish guy who made the transition from beginner to full time woodworker in 2 years.
Approx 16 minutes into the video he describes making a table.
To finish the table off and protect against damp and insects he charred the wood.
Wondered whether this technique is used anywhere in France?
Its mainly a Scandanavian idea as they have forests of pine rather than oak which is naturally longer lasting.
In my old Moulin in the Creuse, the oak beams were charred to prevent insect infestations, some of them were less than 30 years old .
I know it as Japanese - Shou Sugi Ban. We wanted to use it for our renovation as we love it, but too expensive. However there is a cheaper local product made only from dead pine/spruce trees that has similar aspect tho’ not black. Can’t remember name at moment.
This is a supplier in France
Unusual and probably not worth it for oak which has so much tannin its pretty resistant to attack.
Oak (Types of wood) | Libéron wood cares and products.
That’s interesting.
I am thinking of using a blowtorch to char two massive oak beams in our cellar.
Any thoughts?
Give it a go, but don’t set your house on fire😉. It might only work for “new” timber, not already infested
Creusois woodworm are on steroids 
This is one method - (not much speech)
Have a friend with a fire extinguisher on hand.
I’ve never had a piece of wood actually catch fire.
But I always do the scorching on a large concreted floor and have hose reel and fire extinguisher to hand!
I would be very careful using a blowtorch anywhere near concrete. Applying a blowtorch directly to concrete can make it explode violently. I know, as I did just that and it not only damaged my hearing, it blew a 30cm wide 6cm deep crater in the concrete garage floor 
. I was lucky that I was wearing safety glasses.
I can neither confirm nor deny whether I was involved in an incident where an anti-mosquito spiral was placed on a wooden bannister and said bannister decided to join the smouldering.
Hi Rachel,
Yes, a standard gas canister powered blowtorch.
The process is to char the wood, sand it down then apply oil or varnish. That pine table top received a couple of coats of Starwax huile protectrice.
Get a double gas burner for weeds, faster, hotter 
I built a fence about 10 years ago and charred the bottom 60cm of the fence posts with the intention of having the bottom 45cm in concrete (post mix stuff). After charring, I put the charred ends in a bucket of preservative for about 12 hours to allow time for it to penetrate a bit. When it was well dried, I finished the charred ends with a tarry paint I had lying around, which I think might have been bitumen-based. Yes, a belt and braces approach. The fence has lasted well. An adjacent fence of treated timber, put in by professionals, has rotted at the bases of the fence posts and blown over twice.
The tar like stuff would have done it. The preservative not. Yes we all believe whats written on the tin but a test of two years exposure to Sika timber preservative were far worse than untreated. Pressure treated was best. They also make post socks that you shrink wrap to the posts but a bit pricey.
