Saturday, November 16, 2024 | Country Acres • Page 1
Country Acres Saturday, November 16, 2024
PRSRT STD ECR U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #861 Sauk Rapids, MN 2 Second Ave S Suite 135 Sauk Rapids MN 56379
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Volume 11, Edition 17
AMPED UP
ART
Weishair Custom Woodworks does high-voltage fractal burning BY BEN SONNEK STAFF WRITER
SAUK CENTRE — Fractal burning is a risky form of woodcraft, but the reward is self-evident. Weishair Custom Woodworks in Sauk Centre makes products with unique burnt-in designs, and
PHOTOS BY BEN SONNEK
the founder, Steven Weishair, enjoys sharing the art forged with high voltage. “At first, the burn looks like a bunch of soot,” said Steven Weishair. “When I clean it with the steel wool and a little water, what impresses me is what gets revealed for the design. All the fine details show up.” Growing up in the countryside east of Sauk Centre, Weishair always liked working with his hands. Some of his earliest creations came from his involvement in 4-H. He was into fishing at the time, so some of his projects for the Stearns County Fair included wooden fishing lures that he carved with his pocketknife and then sanded. He also made and submitted fishshaped wooden jiggle sticks. With his creations,
Weishair claimed a blue ribbon at the Minnesota State Fair every year he entered during the early 2000s. For a while after college, he lived south of Glenwood near a forest, where he cut down trees and split the wood by hand and began making his own jiggle sticks again. “A dog chewed one of (the sticks) up,” Weishair said. “I made some new ones, and I did a little research after I met my wife, Ariane, … and I did some more woodworking.” Through his research, Weishair stumbled across fractal burning, also known as Lichtenberg burning. The process uses a high-voltage transformer to run a current through a treated section of wood, burning a lightning pattern into it in the process.
Steven Weishair showcases two miniature cornhole boards, one with fractal burning and one without, Oct. 28 in Sauk Centre. After a fractal burn, Weishair cleans the area with steel wool and also uses a wood bleach compound with oxalic acid and water to remove any yellowing in the wood from the electricity.
“It piqued my interest because I’m a storm chaser,” Weishair said. “I love lightning, and (fractal burning) puts a lightning pattern in the wood.” Weishair uses a microwave oven transformer, a unit which burns at 4,0008,000 volts at 30-50 amps. He prefers it over a neon sign transformer unit, which burns at 10,000-20,000 volts but at a lower amperage, resulting in a slower burn.
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A Viking chair and a fireside stand show different wood burning patterns Oct. 28 in Sauk Centre. The seat of the Viking chair can be removed and stored in the brackets on the chair’s back for easy transportation.
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Watch for the next edition of Country Acres on December 21, 2024
Publications
COUNTRY:
5
A past, future in poultry Melrose
7
Something to be grateful for Tiffany Klaphake column
11 From herds to hospitality Staples 15 Joy at first bite Eden Valley 19 Starting from scratch Willmar
21 Across the acres Hunters Q&A 22 Country cooking Freeport 25 Holding sheep, values close to heart Miltona