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A amiotiki Member Wilson, North Carolina Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 125	A amiotiki Posted posted on Tue, Dec 20, 2005 10:14 AM On 2005-12-17 21:35, Lake Surfer wrote:I'm wondering if salt water would do the same as sugar water? NO!!! Salt water is absolutely the WORST thing you could do! Conservationists spend gawdawful amounts of time carefully removing salt from everything it comes into contact with - has to do with chemical interactions. Salt is sooo destructive! I really don't know much about how to 'season' wood for carving...Probably the best thing you could do to season freshly cut wood would be to let it dry as slowly as possible - if necessary, spray it with water periodically to maintain a steady rate of dehydration. Soft woods, pine, spruce, etc. will behave the worst because of their cellular structure. Hardwoods have a smaller cell size, so they will behave very differently. It is the rapid collapse of the cell walls that cause the radial cracking that is so frustrating for carvers. Maybe you could experiment with bulking your wood with sugar before carving? If anybody is interested in this process, let me know and I will put up a longer post on how to do it and what you need to have. My work is primarily done with old archaeological wood - wood that has already had something done to it. In our cases, our primary job is to see that the wood does not dry out until it has been stabilized - that is, the cellular structure shored up with a bulking agent (like sugar or low molecular weight PEG). That way we can retain as much of the original shape as possible. I'm kind of rambling here - stream of consciousness writing I guess. Hehe, guess I need to start carving so I can better understand the dynamics of fresh vs old wood. amiotiki P.S. Mold and mildew are bad news for organics like wood - they can get deep inside and be really tough to get rid of. You might want to spritz your wood with Lysol periodically just to keep organic critters from munching down. [ Edited by: amiotiki 2005-12-20 10:17 ]

*On 2005-12-17 21:35, Lake Surfer wrote:*I'm wondering if salt water would do the same as sugar water?

NO!!! Salt water is absolutely the WORST thing you could do! Conservationists spend gawdawful amounts of time carefully removing salt from everything it comes into contact with - has to do with chemical interactions. Salt is sooo destructive!

I really don't know much about how to 'season' wood for carving...Probably the best thing you could do to season freshly cut wood would be to let it dry as slowly as possible - if necessary, spray it with water periodically to maintain a steady rate of dehydration. Soft woods, pine, spruce, etc. will behave the worst because of their cellular structure. Hardwoods have a smaller cell size, so they will behave very differently. It is the rapid collapse of the cell walls that cause the radial cracking that is so frustrating for carvers.

Maybe you could experiment with bulking your wood with sugar before carving? If anybody is interested in this process, let me know and I will put up a longer post on how to do it and what you need to have.

My work is primarily done with old archaeological wood - wood that has already had something done to it. In our cases, our primary job is to see that the wood does not dry out until it has been stabilized - that is, the cellular structure shored up with a bulking agent (like sugar or low molecular weight PEG). That way we can retain as much of the original shape as possible.

I'm kind of rambling here - stream of consciousness writing I guess. Hehe, guess I need to start carving so I can better understand the dynamics of fresh vs old wood.

amiotiki

P.S. Mold and mildew are bad news for organics like wood - they can get deep inside and be really tough to get rid of. You might want to spritz your wood with Lysol periodically just to keep organic critters from munching down.

[ Edited by: amiotiki 2005-12-20 10:17 ]

Post #203862 by amiotiki on Tue, Dec 20, 2005 10:14 AM