One bit of advice I had from someone who worked in the sawmill business was to paint the end grain of freshly cut timber with house paint. I used some water based acrylic paint (flexible) on some short lengths of mango slab that was freshly cut and 7 years later there's been no sign of cracking at all as it dried.
Wow this wood is every bit as good looking in person. I bought $100 bucks worth. I'm wondering if I can just seal it up with polyurethane and prevent moisture changes and checking? Glycerin? What kind? How long? Does it need sealing after?
On the end grain you can roll or brush on two or three heavy coats of water-based primer. The turning guys then put them in paper bags. (They swear by the paper bag.) Not a tight fit and not folded up like a Christmas present. They leave just a little bit of air. This creates an atmosphere to slow down the drying affect. (The size of pieces you have, the only paper bag I know that big might be the yard waste paper bags.) Then they put the bag in a dark place with no exposure to sunlight or excessive heat. The rule of thumb is one year for each inch of thickness before opening the bag. After that drying period, taking it out of the bag and letting it climatize to the room you're going to do the work on it in for an additional 3 to 6 months. I do this and I keep an eye on it and make bowties to prevent checking. Then I go back and fill the cracks with a two part epoxy resin.
This sounds like a royal pain in the ass. Stick to granite, stone, rock... something that will last as long as the bronze.
That's a heck of a dryout regime. Low and slow. You could use brown Kraft paper off a roll to make an envelope. I use it in my printshop. I have it in 30" rolls. Here's an example of bow ties in case you're unfamiliar As the fibers shrink they'll move. There's just no getting around it. How they'll move is anybody's guess but I have to believe that slower is better. Don't count on the bark staying on though. I wonder how the glycerine works? Pete
What about coating them with polyurethane? That should seal in the moisture and prevent drying and checking entirely?
Back in the '70's we were making a road trip and decided to take the short cut up a two lane road through the mountains which was the old wagon trail for pioneers traveling from Virginia westward. We stopped at an old general store and behind the counter was a large chunk of tree about 3' x 3' with four or five adjustable iron bands around it. We inquired about it and the old fellow told us it was a butchers block from the mid 1800's made out of old growth American Chestnut. I guess cranking down the iron bands as it dried prevented checking.
PEG can be used as a grain refiner for electroplating too but the laxative stuff is around 3000 size and I think you need 400 molecular size. While I think about it, Zapin's wood seems to have a pattern caused by the sap, I had something similar with a brown colored wood that I was soaking in a tub of water: the water leached all the wood sugars/sap out and went brown and left a pale blonde wood instead.
So if I soak it in PEG does it stabilize the wood and replace the water? Or are you saying it will pull out the color?
The PEG I used was a white powder dissolved in water, I'm not sure if there's any that's liquid to begin with, it's possible. So it's possible the colours you're seeing are from water soluble components in the wood. I made brown wood go a pale blonde colour just from soaking in water for a few hours.
Made some progress on the eagle. I made myself a rotary table so I could apply patina. So I added the liver of sulfur first. Will sand blast it back in areas that don't need it. Then ferric nitrate to make it brown, then more blasting and finally a polish and overcoat layer to sela it in. At least thats the plan.
Next phase completed. Sandblasted off the excess liver of sulfur. Next step ferric nitrate and ferric chloride. Then more sand blasting. Then polishing tips of feathers.
I love that last pic, he's got this intelligent, quizzical look on his face that really brings him to life. Even if I had all of the necessary technical skills, I could never do that, you're an artist.
Yup, Zap has the market cornered on chickens! I'm waiting for him to do a naked chick with tigolbitties! May I suggest her laying back so I can use it as a coffee table??
