Cracking

[keith the knife]

HI ALL I HAVE CARVED A MUSHROOM OUT OF CEDAR WOOD. AND ITS STARTING TO CRACK.Sad HOW CAN I STOP THE CRACKING IN THE WOOD WITHOUT LOSING THE SMELL OF THE CEDAR. I WOULD TO SEND A PIC BUT DO NOT KNOW HOW.Cowboy Thank You KEITH THE KNIFE

[AlArchie]

Ya can't! If you carved that piece in a dry room, and the wood was fairly fresh, it may return somewhat if the humidity rises a bit. Or you may have relieved some internal stresses in the wood when you did the carving. Not much to be done about that one.

[bbeery]

You can try saoking it in water or wrapping it in a wet towel for several weeks, sometimes the cracks will swell back up. Then, you need to do a long transition period of introducing it back into the environment. But, Al is probably right, Cedar is bad for craking and difficult to stop.

[AlArchie]

Hope nobody caught my drift wrong, here. I've found that cedar is a bit prone to splitting and checking while curing (drying), but once properly cured, it is a stable wood. However, once a piece of wood of any kind begins to crack, it's too late to stop and the piece will most likely continue to crack until the wood fibers come to a stable moisture content.

I also mentioned cracking due to the release of internal stresses. Some wood, while it is growing develops internals stresses that are both caused by and equalized by external forces. For instance; on branches, the weight of the growing branch itself puts a strain on the wood. On the bottom of the branch, compression stresses are developed and on the top of the branch, tension stresses develop, due to the weight of the branch itself. In the growing branch, these stresses are equalized, however they remain there after the branch is cut. When you carve, or otherwise cut into these stressed woods, you relieve some of the balanced stresses and that can allow the wood to split.

Same goes for trees that are growing in strong prevailing winds. The tree grows with compression stresses on the downwind side and tension stresses on the upwind side. Similar stresses are present in leaning trees. Even in the main trunks of straight growing trees, there are some stresses transferred from the weight of large limbs.

It is really noticable when ripping some very straight cured lumber.....the kerf will either close and pich the blade or warp away from the blade.

Al

[wade clark]

Mushrooms crack. Real ones, I mean. So say, "I meant to do that!" and live with it. Is it a "picture" of a mushroom carved on a board or is it a free-standing mushroom?
Tell us more about the wood you carved it out of...was it a round from a tree including the heart wood, was it dry or green when you started? In either of these cases expect cracking. Chainsaw carvers carve green in the round wood; to reduce splitting they cut a long deep cut in the direction of growth, clear to the heart, to relieve stress in the wood and reduce splitting...but they still expect splitting. If you can take the round of wood, cut it lengthwise, cutting a slab off and leaving the heart wood behind, an outside slab without heartwood will far less prone to cracking. You can also keep it sealed in an end-grain sealer like Anchor-Seal, if carving it green, and keep it from drying too fast and cracking...it'll reduce the risk but not 100%.
Even if the wood's dry, as Al said, you may relieve inner stresses and cause a split.
I don't think there's anything that will stop that cedar aroma, except maybe putting a sealer on it, so don't worry about that.
You can learn a lot between the first cut and the last on a carving! Be sure to pick up another piece of wood and carve it--don't let a crack discourage you or slow you down.
Wade

[whitecree]

Red or yellow cedar? Green or seasoned?

Yellow cedar that is still green will often "heal" if soaked, then wrapped in plastic to slow the drying. Red cedar does this too, but not as well.

If you do get it to heal up, keep it someplace damp and out of the light and away from heat. Carve a little at a time, then return it to the cool damp place.

[whittlinJim]

I had a walking stick with a few large cracks that didnt affect the carving, but I didnt want it to keep splitting. I set it aside to dry then mixed up some epoxy to fill in and stabilize the cracks. The ends had already been sealed and once the epoxy was dry I set the stick aside to competely dry before finishing it with poly. That seemed to solve the problem, I havent had any more cracking.

Jim

[keith the knife]

Thank You All For All The Help And Yes I Will Kept Carving Thank Angian