Burned, then evened
Brasa starts under the flame. The finished table is torched until the surface carbonizes, then brushed back. Fire alone never lands evenly, so the finish carries a black stain that pulls the whole surface to one tone before it is sealed. The texture is the fire's; the evenness is the finish.
The two surfaces take the flame differently, which is the point. The flat top, sanded smooth before burning, holds a matte black that still reads its grain when the light rakes across it. The live edge, softer and open-pored, burns deeper and cracks into the glossy alligatored char you can see below. On a Guanacaste slab the sapwood is pale and the heartwood dark — burned and then evened, that contrast disappears and only the form is left.
