Replies

1. 
   Ben_Finowski | May 23, 1999 09:38am | #1

   *
   a plastic bag and 20 years

   But, I imagine if it contains the pith, there is not much you can do.

   I've heard of people buffing it on a grinder/buffer machine to a nice glow. many oil coats would probably be nice, but test on scrap for affect.

   Curious: How difficult was it to carve?

1. 
   nathan_rish | May 25, 1999 05:42pm | #2

   *Carving was not as difficult as I had imagined. The rough work I did with a sculpture set by marples and I used a mallet. Latter I used a couple of ashly Ives carving tools. The detail was done with palm carving tools and of course a mallet. Lastly I used a few files and rasps to sooth it out, and buffed it with 220 sand paper. Problems occured with detail work.

1. 
   Sam_Jones | May 29, 1999 01:03pm | #3

   *I have done a very little bit of carving with ebony and found it a joy to carve--it was like carving in a hard plastic or something--I had no problems with tear-out or splitting, just nice clean curls of wood--admittedly, most of it was pretty linear and I only do small pieces, but I really liked it. As for preventing spliting, the best solution I have found is quickly getting a good seal painted on any end grain (i.e. both ends of your log) with glue or something, and waiting patiently for the moisture leave slowly through the sides rather than quickly out the ends , causing splitting which is very difficult to remedy once it starts. I think wood is best when it spends a year or so drying passively this way before it is used.