Shawn James Building an Underground Root Cellar with Burnt Timbers | Shou Sugi Ban, Yakisugi

netpressions follows the My Self-Reliance YouTube Channel. The Building an Underground Root Cellar with Burnt Timbers series is one of my favorite video series on the channel, so I created a separate playlist for this series.

I will add videos to this playlist as Shawn James makes progress on his root cellar. In the YouTube video comments, many have asked why Shawn chars the wood before building sections of his cellar.

In the video description, Shawn states that “burning the wood makes it more resistant to decay from moisture and insects.”

I also looked up the phrase “Shou Sugi Ban” on the internet, and, according to charredwood.com, Shou-Sugi-Ban literally translates to “burnt cedar board”, and, according to Wikipedia, Yakisugi is a traditional Japanese method of wood preservation.

The real beauty in the videos, however, is watching Shawn’s woodworking craftsmanship, while incorporating this wood preservation process into his root cellar build. The nature scenery Shawn includes also gives his videos a relaxing quality that is reflected in the videos on this playlist.

This root cellar was constructed at Shawn’s first cabin location, and is not a part of his current homestead, which is located even deeper in the Canadian wilderness.

– netpressionist