Help with removing wax from wood please

[Blinky Bill]

Greetings all,
And the hope that everyone enjoyed their Easter.
Today I bought a piece of rare and expensive timber the ends of which have been dipped in melted parrafin wax. My question is, ....is there a safe method of removing the wax so that it wont interfere with any future finish applied. My piece of timber is Huon Pine, exclusive to our southernmost island state of Tasmania and cost me the (Bargain) amount of AUD$ 19:00 for a piece measuring 17 1/2" long by 8 1/2" wide and 1" thick...this timber when available, retails at 3 or more time the price of the most popular hardwoods.
A very attractive timber and also very interesting.......have pasted below exerpts from various websites discussing Huon Pine....

"
The Huon Pine (Lagarostrobos franklinii)

Over 3000 years ago, before the birth of Christianity, a seedling took root in the dark leech-ridden forests of Tasmania.

Today, that seedling is an almost fully grown member of one of the world's longest living species - the Huon Pine. Its rare wood is favoured by artists and fine furniture makers, and its lightness, strength and close grain make it the "holy grail" of boat-building

This bThe Huon pine grows at
the incredibly slow rate
of between 0.3 – 2 mm
per year in diameter.
Despite such slow growth
the tree may attain
heights of 40 m and
commonly reachThe Huon pine grows at
es 20 m
to 25 m in height. The
foliage of the Huon pine
consists of tiny scales closely
pressed to the stalk. The many
little fingers of growth give the tree a distinct feathery
appearance.
Huon pines produce pollen and seeds from small
cones
eautiful timber is rare and available only from salvaged trees.

John in Australia

[hruukki]

I'm only guessing so you'd want to check this somewhere else - but my guess is the wax doesn't actually penetrate the wood, so you could probably just saw 2-3mm bits off the ends - or you can at least nick a piece off it to see how deep the wax has penetrated.

I ran a test - I have a piece of rosewood, waxed as well, and judging by the color after I sawed it some, the wax hasn't penetrated.

[AlArchie]

Chuck that chunk in the freezer for a few hours. The wax should stiffen up enough to chip right off. If any remains you can wipe the remaining areas down with mineral spirits or paint thinner.

You still might have to cut a few mm off the ends if the wax has soaked into the open grain.

Al

[pallin]

The advice of prior responses seems correct. The description of the wood intrigues me. While traveling in New Zealand I bought a bowl made of Swamp Kauri - 6000 years old, with beautiful swirling grain. Kauri is still a native wood of New Zealand, but all of the modern samples are rather straight grained. Perhaps that is what happened to oak in the U.S.

[K Karver]

Hi John,

Do not know anything about the wax. I would have thought about heating it, but the advice above sounds better.

Do you have a picture of the wood you purchased. Be interesting to see.

John K Karver.

[Blinky Bill]

G'DAY All,
And thanks for the very welcome advice, I'm determined not to lose any of this timber, so will be trying the freeze, chip, and wipe approach......
For K Karver and anyone interested, I am attaching snaps of my timber, it is quite bland looking, but that is what I wanted as I intend to use it for a relief carving. To me, the beauty of Huon is that curving and sweeping cuts cause the grain to refract the light and the colour ranges from what you see here to a deep honey gold. In the sample below you will see a tiny dark spot, this is a "birdseye" and Huon can sometimes be found absolutely covered in these spots and that becomes an extremely expensive piece of timber.I've included end grain shots, but I don't know if you can see the grain, I will tell you that the dark rings are about as thick as a pencil line and about 1 mm apart, apparently the tree only gains 2mm. in width each year.
Thanks again

p.s. Pallin...I'm no expert, but I wonder if the plainness of "new" timber is our tendency to clear around trees and do what we can to let them grow higher and straighter thus taking away the "struggle" that perhaps gives the older timber its character?

[Blinky Bill]

OOops! forgot to attach the snaps.........hey, it's after 2:00 am here....<grin>