Chainsaw Sculptures "on the stump"

Chips

Hi all

Greetings from the Catskill Mountains of New York. I ran across the forum on a search for information about preserving chainsaw sculptures "on the stump", and figured who better might know than tree people. I'm not an arborist: I'm a woodsculptor by profession, and am expanding my art into larger pieces. I'm concerned about carvings still rooted in the ground being attacked by pests and rotted by moisture and fungi and such and have found little good information about addressing these things.

So, anyhow, G'day to everybody. You can see some of my work at my gallery pages at www.sonrisewoodcarving.com.

Cheers,

Chips

windthrown

Wow, that's a good intro! I am copying your post here and making a separate thread of it. Not that many people read this thread, and it is an interesting topic.

BTW: I have a lot of friends up in Middletown. I have not been back in about 10 years, but I love The 'Catskulls' as my dad called it (he was from Brooklyn). I dearly miss the pizza up around there.

Welcome to TW...

boreality

I would look at the basics of house construction. So I'd slice the carving off the stump above the ground with a thin blade, hollow the stump, insert steel and concrete into the stump cavity. Then have a plastic moisture barrier between stump and carving. And finally use the best wood perserative on the carving. Just an idea, I've never done it myself.

Chips

What exactly do you mean by "steel" and concrete? Are you talking about rebar? This sounds like a good idea, at least for straight trunks. I'm not sure how to handle leaners though. Does anybody know of something that might be able to be injected into the base of the trunk that would fend off insect invasions? Or is that asking too much?

dov

You could try what I do with my tool handles. I mummify the wood in boiled linseed oil. Just keep on adding oil, especially at the ends of the grain, until it won't take any more. It will soak up a huge amount if the wood is dry, but I stored my mattock out in the weather for about 5 years and the handle still looks almost like new. Would probably set you back a reasonable amount of cash, but it is quite effective. Certainly seems to outlast plastic coatings like polyurethane.

Another option is creosote - like for wooden telegraph poles.

__________________

Chips

That might work....I'm planning on doing artworks that are worth some money to whomever commissions them, so I want to be able to say that they will last for a while at least. Maybe if I were to bore into the base of the trunk at intervals and then funnel the oil into the holes until they won't take any more it would create a barrier. After that I guess I would have to leave the maintenance up to the client. It would give the appearance that I tried at least. I'll have to see if people are willing to pay the extra for the oil.

dov

It would take a lot of oil for a decent sized sculpture, perhaps even a gallon of the stuff for a bigger stump, but it lasts very well and leaves a natural looking finish while the wood being already flooded with the oil should resist cracking from being soaked and dried in the weather.

When preserving pick handles etc, I keep on adding oil for a couple of days until the wood won't take any more. Drips and dribbles ought to be wiped so they don't dry that way. A pick handle takes about 1 and 1/2 ounces of oil, so you can maybe make a rough guess (and then double it just in case) for how much a carved stump would take.

It's a natural product, so shouldn't be too hard to sell to the customer! On the side of safety, any rags with linseed oil on them should be soaked in water as I'm told they can spontaneously combust. The mummified wood is perfectly safe though.

__________________

Chips

I've added this one to my list of possible solutions: It's a good one, I must say. I'm not sure if my client in suburban Long Island is going to go for a pile of horse apples next to her sunroom for the next several years though.

I would cut the stump off and be done with it, but the trunk is leaning and I fear that it would eventually overbalance. It is possible that the sculpture can be designed to counterweight the tree and thus solve the problem in this case.

Thanks for the very creative suggestion

Chips

boreality

Sikkens Cetol seems to be the most popular wood preserative with log builders and wooden boat people. The linseed oil is good but it turns black with age. I saw a show on log chinese temples. They stayed preserved for over 1000 years with a mix of linseed oil, pigs blood, and sand. They had an elaborate application process. It ended up looking like red gloss finish.

Chips

Sounds like a beautiful finish...I wonder where one could find out the formula and how to apply it?

corrupt

Around here the shire has some one go around to all the wooden power poles and drill 3 holes in the side of them about a foot up from ground level. They put some chemical in there and put a plastic bung back in the hole. May be something to research? I assume they are protecting them against termites.

Chips

Thanks muchly for the tip: Does anyone have an idea of what the product name for this chemical might be?

Drouin Tree Service

Creosote - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

__________________

Drouin Tree Services | Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland | Landclearing Melbourne

Chips

Thanks muchly....a simple enough solution