Post #72551 by Benzart on Mon, Jan 26, 2004 6:52 AM

Lakesurfer, suffering wood cracks and wise cracks as well....
During the Winter, where ever you are, the humidity is Very Low, and Anything with moisture content will Lose a lot Wood, Human skin, sinuses, you name it.
If you try to Patch the crack, it will Always Look Patched. You have to take into account what the Proposed final product will be. If it is to be a fine Indoor piece, you need to use at least Mostly cured , stable wood.For and Outdoor Statue/Tiki type piece, you can use fresh wood and Expect Cracking as moisture is sucked out of the log.To minimize the cracks there are several things you can "Cure" the wood with. Tikitanked mentioned Peg which is mostly radiator coolant/freeze protector, but the best thing to do is Select wood that does not dry out so fast(Large Opened grains like Pines), and let the wood cure as long as possible. Another thing is Where you carve the wood and how long it has been in that room or building. If you take a log from outdoors and bring it inside where it is Warm and cozy, it will dry out too fast and crack badly.
Now, Don't worry about the cracks, just finish the piece as planned originally and leave the cracks there.
Several coats of varnish either Oil or Latex will seal the open ends (the whole carving is an open end) and slow the cracking.Every carver goes through this same process, don't worry, as you can see, we all still want that Tiki, cracks and all.