[carverswoodshop]

hi, i have a class that i am teaching, and i wanted to know if any of you bleach your carving before painting, it , if you do please email how you do it, i like a better way to clean up the carving of marks, and finger prints before painting it, please email me direct at carverswoodshop@yahoo.com thanks for your help...............happy carving !!!!

[Claude]

Personally, I prefer a bar of ivory soap, some running water, and an old toothbrush. After it's clean, dry it with a hair dryer.

Claude

[Paul_Guraedy]

I have used a two part bleach that was available through Home Depot. But, I have been told that they no longer carry it. This stuff does a wonderful job of turning the wood a kind of off-white color. Very effective for polar bears.

Since I paint primarily with watercolors, I have been looking for something that would help with the very things you mention (fingerprints, oils, etc.). A while back a "flat artist" told me about Golden's "absorbent ground". The directions call for it to be applied over gesso. I do not like gesso at all so decided to give the absorbent ground a try with application directly to the wood. It works the same, has been well over a year, and I am not seeing any areas where it is not holding. Since the idea is to make slick surfaces (masonite, etc.) work like watercolor paper, I don't see why it would not also work with acrylics.

[Lynn O. Doughty]

I think the best thing to do is to just wash your hands before and during the carving process. It takes but a second to get up and go lather up or to drop the carving glove into the next wash cycle when it gets dirty. My Sand-O-Flex flap sander does help remove any dirt that might be on the outer edges of the chipped surface but that's the only after carving step I take prior to painting.

[Kenny_S]

Vicki Bishop has used the Bleach process on one of her Santa Claus Carvings with great results. But I believe that may have been the only one she done that way.She was feature is a past WCI article.
I just use Simple Green, water and a denture brush.
No problems yet.

[snickerbocker]

Kenny I have done several with the bleach, it is great for bases that are snow as well. It is just very hard to paint a bleached piece, because of the wicking or bleeding that washes tend to do on wood.

[Kenny_S]

Thank you Vicki for clarifying my posting. Maybe over stepped my boundries in useing your name.
Nice to know about bleaching wood and it uses for bases.
Only dealing with bleach wood is the little bride and I spent 6 weeks taking the finish off our kitchen cabinets to find out that the wood had been bleached. More sanding and what should have been a two week project, turned to 6 weeks. But we finished them and the little bride id happy. Well as happy as see will be. I guess, if she has to be. LOL

Thanks again though.

[snickerbocker]

Kenny no problem but does it ever fail that a 2 week project is always 6 weeks or longer.

[Eddy Smiles]

Ajax liquid soap with a tooth brush and a good water flush following!