This is about 14 years too late but I'm looking for a way to finish a piece of wood w lightening strike scars. So maybe someone else will stumble on this.
When lightening strikes a tree it leaves a pattern referred to as a Lichtenberg pattern. This is basically a fractal pattern. (Look it up) these scars are a very interesting pattern that are really beautiful in the finished wood. I found my piece in Colorado. You know-forest fires. I also saw some really nice finished pieces.

On Sun, 29 Jun 2014 09:48:50 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

This is about 14 years too late but I'm looking for a way to finish a
piece of wood w lightening strike scars. So maybe someone else will
stumble on this.

When lightening strikes a tree it leaves a pattern referred to as a
Lichtenberg pattern. This is basically a fractal pattern. (Look it up)
these scars are a very interesting pattern that are really beautiful
in the finished wood. I found my piece in Colorado. You know-forest
fires. I also saw some really nice finished pieces.

A friend emailed me this video a few days ago with the subject: Nice rack!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_qQw0MsJ4I

The tree limb was struck by a tornado instead of lightning and it is spalted
"(Look it up)" instead of Lichtenberged.

IMO the nice rack is the only reason the video has been viewed 474K times ;-)