Wood Charring as Weatherproofing : The Epistemology in Practice
Within Lothu Wistoft, as it stands on this day, the 13th of May 2026, wood charring as a preservation technique is the best example of the Three Rules of Engagement (see Epistemology for details) working.
The technique is simple in that I burn or char the surface; this creates a carbonised “skin” layer that resists moisture, insects and fungal decay. This also repels water rather than absorbing it, this directly inhibits fungal growth as there is not enough moisture for it and insect cannot process carbon in a way that is sustainable to their survival. This means that the wood underneath lasts significantly longer.
Although the Japanese technique called Shou Sug Ban gets a lot of attention in the modern era as both a decorative and functional technique it is not culturally specific. It stands to reason from a physics and chemical point of view these properties exist no matter what the culture that used them, this points to Rule 1, fire and wood existed therefore it falls within the material constraints.
There is archaeological evidence that’s confirms deliberate charring as structural timber of a late 12th century merchant ship in Rhodes. Although this is several hundred years after the fact it shows that the reasoning of using wood charring as a preservation technique was present in the broader medieval world. It however would be ignorant of me to not mention there is no direct acknowledged evidence of this within the era or that it was obviously not done for decorative meaning, but I will point to Rule 2 and 3 to base the process of the technique.
That the technique is not specifically documented in any Norse sources changes nothing. The physics of the technique requires no documentation. Something that would have simply been done doesn't need to be written down. The Norse where oral historians and even Alfred the Great only documented things of importance, and even that was objectional to his sense of what is important, not that which is just known or carried out on some level by someone who might have come across it in isolation.
Charred wood preservation properties scientific evidence: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/14/3/560 Study of charred medieval shipwreck