Considering yesterday’s post, this earlier post may also be helpful
Wood moisture when carving
I recently purchased some plates. The first one I carved was ok the second one seems to be very dry. Wood chips,and tears to easy,cannot get a smooth cut. What are your ideas on how to get the wood back to a carveable condition? Your help much needed. Thanks Joe
hi Joe
There are a couple of things you can do to increase the moisture content of the wood. You can increase the moisture content as you carve by having a spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol. Spray the wood as you carve and The wood will carve more easily. Rubbing alcohol evaporators more quickly than water.
Another way to increase the moisture content of your plate is to take a cooler with a lid that’s large enough to hold your plate inside. Take a pot of boiling water and place it inside the cooler with your plate on edge, cover the cooler and let it sit overnight. The moisture throughout the entire piece of wood will be ready to carve in the morning.
Make sure your knife is razor-sharp and try to carve with the grain as often as possible. I’m sure one of these two methods will help as well. If you have any other questions please let me know.
Sincerely,
Marty
irling
WOW ! ! ! ! Talk about timing. I am trying to carve a piece of walnut. It does not want to cooperate. Our humidity yesterday was 7-8 %. I mean its dry. The temp was 95-96. I am going to try some ” moisturising” overnight, I’ll let you know.
Irling
marty
Here’s another thought from Jan the Wood Butcher
I place a moderately damp paper towel on the back side and put it in a plastic bag overnight works great for me
irling
After reading the article yesterday. I found a well used hand towel and wet it
then wrung it out as best I could, hung it on the line for about 15 minutes in the sun and slight breeze. I wrapped the wood in it about 4:30 pm. This morning
about 9:00 I got back to it and boy did it ever work better.
Thanks for the tip.
Irling
Don Thomas
I live in southern Utah were it is always dry. 9% today. I have bought a big plastic storage container and put all my wood in that with a bowl of water. It seems to keep the wood at the moisture content that is what I need to carve. I have been doing this for over a year and am very satisfied with the results.
marty
This just in from John G. More good info.
Marty,
I just read your latest email on people having problems with dry wood causing problems. I live in Fort Collins, CO, and it is always dry here with low humidity. I’ve been doing woodturning here for many years. The low humidity can cause lots of problems that I have learned to deal with. I have been adapting some of those solutions to my chip carving. Being an engineer, I like to analyze my problems and when possible put numbers to the situation.
Moisture content of the wood can be measured easily. The really good moisture meters have been expensive in the past but, I recently found a cheap moisture meter at Harbor Freight. I’ve done some experimenting with it and comparing it with an older more expensive unit I have, It seems to be good enough for our purposes.
Suggested moisture content for ‘normal’ flat work (non-lathe work) is between 10% and 15%. I’ve found that basswood boards I purchased from you that have been stored in the open in my shop and/or house measure less than 6.9%, the lower limit of my ‘expensive’ meter. And yes, without treatment, it chips badly. Solution, spray with water or alcohol per your recommendations. After spraying, both sides, I let it soak for a minute, then wipe off excess after which it measures above 25%. For long sessions I will need to respray.
The storage of the wood between sessions is important also. From my woodturning experience, I’m a big believer in plastic bags. Fortunately, so far, my chip carving projects will fit into slider sealable (Ziploc, Hefty) storage bags. There are several brands of large ones available in the food storage area of super markets. Some are really big, larger than 2 gallons. For my chip carving projects, between sessions I store them in sealed bags. Frequently. I will enclose damp paper towels in the bag with the wood but not in direct contact with it.
For me, the sealable storage bags are easier to use than a ridged sealable container. These bags, with the wood, also fit nicely in the portable tool box I use to store and organize my chip carving.