[Woodcarver] Advice for carving repair - Thanks and more questions

[Joe Dillett]

Hi Alex,

What I was trying to say is not to fill the crack with something what is 
harder than the wood itself or some material that would not allow 
compression and expansion, such as epoxy. Basswood, inserted loosely and 
matching the grain in the same direction as the rings of the log (plainsawn) 
has the best chance of allow enough movement.

By filling it with a plainsawn piece of basswood the basswood would better 
follow because it has a factor of .28-inch change per foot with a 13% change 
in moisture content. The only wood that has more change is hickory 
(.35-inch) but hickory is too dense to compress. Basswood is soft enough to 
compress if you only are making contact at the outer edge not compressing 
it.

Drilling is ok if you can drill large enough. My opinion is that a 1-1/2 
inch diameter hole will not be enough. I'm thinking that you would need to 
remove about 60% or more of the inside to eliminate the stress. From what 
you describe, 60% stock removal the statue will fall apart.

This is the reason that large statues are laminated. Many are spilt in half 
and hollowed after the statue is roughed out. Two halves are glued back 
together for the finish carving. When laminating the blank they put paper in 
the center joint so it can be opened easier.

If you use bees wax in the very small cracks you wouldn't put it in until 
after all the finishing was done. The bees was would need to be inserted 
every winter and the excess removed every summer. This will not hurt the 
painted surface.


Joe Dillett
The Carving Shop
645 E. LaSalle St. Suite 3
Somonauk, IL. 60552
(815) 498-9290 phone
(815) 498-9249 fax
http://www.thecarvingshop.com
jdillett at thecarvingshop.com
http://www.carvingmagazine.com Carving Magazine web site and Readers Forum
http://www.carvingmagazine.com/chat/chat.shtml Live Chat for Carving 
Magazine.
http://community.webshots.com/user/joe_dillett
http://www.citizenactions.org
**************************************************


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alex Bisso" <albisso at bresnan.net>
To: "[Woodcarver]" <woodcarver at six.pairlist.net>
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 12:32 PM
Subject: [Woodcarver] Advice for carving repair - Thanks and more questions



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I want to thank everyone for their suggestions for repair of the carved Quan 
Yin statue - got some very useful guidance and can see a path forward now.
A few comments and more questions -
Comments:
I understand the artistic perspective and argument for no repair.  In fact, 
when the donor gave the statue to the church it already had some cracks 
around the bottom and I was asked about repairing them.  At that time they 
were not bad and I felt it was best to leave them alone.  However, a year + 
later I am amazed at how much larger the cracks are and how new ones have 
developed and I agree with the owners that repair is desirable at this 
point.  Also, there is some dissatisfaction with the dark color of the 
statue and refinishing it to have a more golden and brighter look is also 
desirable.  With this in mind, I think the repairs and repainting can be 
done with excellent results.
One very good result of this exercise is that I was able to visit with the 
donor, who has financial interest in the company that makes these (in South 
America).  He said the problem occurs in a lot of the carvings and was very 
interested in the idea that boring out the center of the carving from the 
bottom could relieve some of the stresses that cause the cracking.  He said 
he would definitely pass that information on to those who make the statues 
and other similar carvings.
Questions:
How large does the hole from the bottom up into the carving have to be to be 
effective and how far up into the 3' tall statue do I have to go to be 
effective?
    I can easily drill an 11/16 a couple of feet into it from the bottom a 
larger hole might be more difficult. (I might be able to do a 1..25" hole to 
a depth of 18")
    I do not think I want to try to get the hole through the neck area and 
so should probably stop in the chest area to minimize the risk of coming out 
of the
     carving.   If I do this, is there a possibility that cracking in the 
head area might become more severe (there is already a small crack on the 
face and a couple
     on the back of the head)
    Vic H suggested a hole from 4" to 6" in diameter but do not see that as 
possible to any depth over a few inches - risk of splitting the carving is 
too great for
    chisel and mallet work in the hole.  Will a hole as mentioned above be 
sufficient to gain some benefit?
Hi Joe - I am confused by two of your comments.  On one hand you said "If 
you try to fill them with anything hard, that does not allow them to close, 
the force could cause the crack to continue through the piece to the other 
side." (They do expand and contract, winter and summer).  On the other hand, 
relative to inserting the wood wedges to fill the crack you advised "Try to 
do this in the winter so the crack is the widest."  It seems to me that 
these ideas seem to conflict.  Why would you not fill the cracks when they 
are smallest, or maybe midway?  Is the expanding force greater than the 
contracting force?  Will drilling a hole up the center of the carving make 
the timing of the repair less important?
I do think that the wood in the carving is now about as dry as it is going 
to get and was hoping that I could do a repair/refinish that would be 
stable.
Relative to the beeswax.  While sounds like a good idea for  the small 
cracks if there was to be no refinish, I am concerned about doing this if 
the surface is to be repainted/stained.  Is there another way to do the 
smaller, finer cracks that is better for refinishing?
Input from anyone on these questions is welcomed.
Thanks again for all of your help.
ALEX


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