Suggestion regarding torching....... Yellow Can @ Home Depot. It's hot. Torch is like $65. Follow the grain with the torch.
https://www.facebook.com/agrestagardens/photos/?tab=albums is the results. You can blacken them entirely if you like, we did the tortoise pen door that way and it looks great. An 8 foot bench 2 feet deep and with two 4x4 posts 4 feet tall takes about ten minutes to do, and the yellow can of gas is about ten bucks, and one can of gas will probably do around 8 or 9 benches of those dimensions. In other words, it's cheap, fast, and looks great.