Tip: remove bark before soaking..

[W.duBois]

"Haste makes waste".

Before I went on vacation I quickly cut about 10 small blocks out of various kinds of wood, to make into spheres when I got back. I left the bark on, and submerged them in a crate with some stones. I did that to ease the drying process afterwards, the water replaces the internal salts and sap.

Well, when I got back after 6 weeks I saw an alamrming amount of algy on the blocks, and the smell was pretty bad. I pressurewashed them right away to get rid of the algy/smell (without result) and removed the bark. The smell that greeted me was unlike anything I've ever smelled before, really. A mixture of what I can only describe as BBQ'ed poop mixed with ammonia.. disgusting!
Apparently some kind of an-aerobic rotting process happened between the wood and bark.

I've cut away portions of the outer wood, froze them, scrubbed them, microwaved them with a cup of vinegar and the smell has subsided a bit. I'm trying lemon juice + microwave next.. (anyone else got tips??)

So, always remove the bark before soaking..

[jmischel]

"BBQ'ed poop mixed with ammonia"? That's pretty bad.

How does soaking in water "ease" the drying process? Does it make the wood less prone to splitting?

[W.duBois]

Originally Posted by jmischel

How does soaking in water "ease" the drying process? Does it make the wood less prone to splitting?

The wood replaces the sapmoisture which consists of all kinds of salts and other components. That creates extra stress in the wood when you want to dry it. Soaking it in water attracts the salts and replaces it with water. When the wood is uniformly saturated with water you can dry it with a greater change of success.
(Though my piece of Golden chain still cracked when I microwaved it, rest seems fine)

[jmischel]

Thanks for the info. I'll have to try that when I next put up some wood for carving. Most of the fig I cut and put up last year ended up cracking to the point where it's unusable, even for really small carvings.