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<DIV> Merrilee,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I am not sure that "terribly dry and crumbly" wood is the same a what I
call "punky" wood but may have the same carving characteristics.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I have successfully used a reciprocating gouge (Ryobi ) on punky
driftwood. like an electric knife cuts right through angle food cake where
a butcher knife just compress's it, the reciprocating gouge goes smoothly
through the punky wood. perhaps this will work for you.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>another thought is from a guy in Florida that saturates construction grade
pine 2x4s with marine varnish to make it stable, then carves miniatures 1 to2
inches high from it. It doesn't penetrate real deep so he has to
constantly re varnish as he cuts away the wood. in his case he is trying to have
a very strong but flexible wood structure left so it won't break (such as flower
stems or peoples legs arms) and marine varnish is flexible compared to
other finishes, yet "stiff" enough to carve.. </DIV>
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<DIV>Jim O'Dea</DIV></FONT><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="e667fa071eedaa3140d8cbb55aeec7ab"><br/><font style="color:black;font:normal 10pt arial,san-serif;"> <hr style="margin-top:10px"/><A HREF=http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222883570x1201497211/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Faltfarm.mediaplex.com%2Fad%2Fck%2F12309%2D81939%2D1629%2D0>Dell Laptops: Huge Savings on Popular Laptops - Deals starting at $399</A></font></DIV></BODY></HTML>