Cleaning Wood

[Robson Valley]

Most of my carving wood, western red cedar, is scavenged from logging debris piles or wood-pile rescues. Dirty, bark stuck tight, "bug tracks," sap wood I don't want and fingernail sized rotten punky spots. I could spend days with a drawknife or a sculptor's adze cleaning it off. Here's how I get to a smooth working surface in about an hour for a 1/2 log, maybe 14" x 24": Should work for any round wood.

Draw a grid on the log with a grease pencil, rectangles 1.5" x 3" or so, long sides parallel to the length of the log. Set the bed of a Skilsaw for the depth you need. For me, that's about 3/4". Score along all the lines. 1" carpenter's chisel (30 degree bevel side down) and a mallet to pop the pieces off. Maybe a little more chisel dressing and you're done. The harder the wood, the smaller the grid.

[Dicky]

Great tip. Thanks.

[Robson Valley]

You're most welcome. I bought ($10) a 8' piece of 16" cedar log with rainbow color in it. Got the hots to carve a big owl mask out of a 24" x 1/2 log. Had the drawing, tried to lay it out and my pencil would go right through the drawing, through the carbon paper and into the rotten sapwood of the piece. . . not a thing that you'd notice just looking at it.

Save the "popping-off process" for the next exhibition/craft show that you're in. The pieces almost never go more that 10' - 15'.

[SeaLeveler]

Thanks for the tip.
Tony

[James]

I prefer an angle grinder with a 60 grit sanding disk.

[Robson Valley]

James, I agree but for a 8' log? The traditional method is even more tedious than what I do. I won't stand there with an adze and bang it off. I could get a 500Hp industrial planing miller with ceramic blades to do the job.

The really fun part is to get the grid cuts done and take the log to an "Artisans Exhibition" where you are expected to display some finished works and actively pursue you craft. Western Cedar is big work. I can stand there and pop off the sapwood chips, some go maybe 15', some go straight up, the game is to try to catch them on the way down. The key thing is to keep a couple of logs, grid cut, for the opportunity. The people that do knitting and quilting seem to get their knickers in such a crunch.

Plus, I'm usually left with a nice square grid of saw marks to lay out the drawings.