Making White Pine easier to carve.

[Merle Rice]

Hey Guys and Girls, it's me again. I have 2 large White Pine Trees in my back yard. Yesterday I seen 2 dead branches that have been in that state for years, because thet are so dried that they are Brittle. I got the Bark off today( what a mess) outside, and glad for that. It is so dry it feels like Basswood, very lite in weight. I tried carving on a small piece and surwas hard going. I got the idea of spraying it with water so did that and will wait till tomorrow and see if it did any good. My question is will that do any good or is their another way to make it more plyable or it a lost cause?
Thanks
MerleThank You

[carver6]

Merle,
Anytime I've had wood hard enough to require spraying, I use a mix of 50% alcohol & 50% water, and carve immediately. I don't know if waiting will be of any benefit or not.........certainly won't hurt anything but not necessary.
Garon (Carver6)

[whitecree]

Carving immediately after spraying is likely best, but an alternate method I've had some success with is to dampen the wood, wrap in plastic and leave it overnight. This will increase the overall moisture content of the wood.

HOWEVER - this also leads to possible cracking as the wood once more dries.

[R-OLDS]

I had a piece of Mulberry which I had carved a woodspirit into it was a dead branch which seemed very dry. After a period of time I noticed a worm or some sort of bug had started making a new hole in it so I said gosh I'll just microwave it to kill the bugs heat it up. So I did and just after doing it I decided to add more detail to the beard, WOW it had made the wood much more carvable, alot softer.
If you do microwave a piece of wood don't over do it as it could catch on fire due to the heat...
When I heated the Mulberry I did have it in a plastic zip lock bag and the wood seemed quite damp on the outside after nuking.

[squbrigg]

Sounds like those branches were dead a while, so they may be too dry to use. White Pine is usually a great wood to carve. But once a branch is dead a while, it will dry out as the cells collapse. I'd suggest looking for some fresher stuff.

Bob

[Merle Rice]

I just finished Artifical Resperation on my White Pine Sticks with great success. I did all of your suggestions, with exception of the Microwave. the wife would'nt let me cut a hole in the back of the Micro.. My pieces are 2',4', and 5'. I took these pieces and wraped them with 3 wet old bath towels, and then wraped them with a sheet of plastic. I left them that way for 24 hours . this morning I unwraped them and they were easy to cut. On piece had bark still on and was tight. I took a gouge and took it off in strips. It only took 35 min. and a lot easier to clean up the mess. I had 2 pieces that I started to carve when I realised they were hard that I didn't do anything with till this morning. I felt the wood would dry out again, so I thought of BLO.(Boiled Lin. Oil) I remembered. I put a good coat on the 2 pieces and sucess. I tried at different times today and they cut great. When I get the big pieces cleaned up I will put a good coat of BLO on them. This gives me a good excuse to buy a Drawknife, I was using the one that came with my Exacto Knife Set. It worked but it is only 3.5 in. wide. To make a long story short, it can be done and save a nice piece of wood. MerleThank You