glue that holds it all together

Have Been Working on the Totem

as it looks from a distance after  being glued 

        I am in a stage where it is kind of a long drawn out process that involves gluing and filling of certain areas and cracks and then taking the chainsaw and carving out the pieces glued in to create a seamless sculpture. At one point after carving a rather unique elephant I had wanted to do a larger elephant and knew a guy who was wanting to get rid of a bunch of finished planed cutoffs that could in effect be glued and doweled together to form a rather large block that I could carve into a much larger elephant. In some ways this would be good on many levels as it is hard to get wood of the size that they have to carve out West like the big redwoods.

right wing closeup of glued repair

      It would also be a beneficial reuse of a waste product. A lot of these cutoffs were from rather expensive select cuts of wood. According to the person who owned them, they were fine quality hardwoods and of the size and type one will hardly see again, and were of no beneficial use to him or any carpenter as they would take too long figure how to use and were too short to be of any real value except to use as a post in cabinet work or to heat the wood shop. I have seen lots of these cutoffs used as firewood here in our area. Some of the 4x4 inch size which would be ideal for making a full size elephant if one would want to, that once glued together, a person  could take a chainsaw and cut away everything that doesn’t look like an elephant and you would have a piece that would last for years if properly constructed and be very unique. Short pieces when glued and doweled together would be less subject to the cracking that occurs in most wood sculptures, and in comparison as to when it is a large singular piece of wood that is subject to the internal forces that distorts and twists the wood into irregular shapes,causing most of the cracking that occurs. In fact one could in effect make the carving hollow as enough strength would be gained by connecting the pieces together to form a shell of a sculpture to be crafted, allowing you to conserve glue and weigh less, and eliminate some of the time involved in the creation process. This is all purely hypothetical on my part as I have never done anything of this magnitude to assume it can be done.

left wing closeup of repair

    But I have done carving repairs and made seamless repairs where one would have to look hard to see where the repairs were made. It helps to have all the wood of the same variety and age when making repairs and if the carving is kept outside an exterior glue is necessary to assure a good bond that will last. If the piece is designed to be kept indoors, glue such as Elmer’s or any good furniture glue will suffice.

simple crack repair

     History has shown that glued laminated objects are more resilient and stronger than natural wood in its present shape. Constructing large objects such as a Trojan horse is firmly planted in our folklore for ages. So none of what I am suggesting is neither new nor innovative, instead just another variation of same old thing. We have been using glue and adhering sheets of veneer together for years and calling it plywood and up until about 20 years ago was the primary source of structural wood only to be replaced by OSB or oriented strand board which is flakes of wood pressed and heated into a plywood board shape that utilizes a large percentage of the tree required to form the sheet of board with very little waste involved. This is primarily used in construction today and forms the sides of most new houses. It is an exterior glued board much like regular plywood that can be cut and glued to form even structural timbers under factory conditions.

pretty zinnia, can never have enough pics of these

      This is all good news for American and world forests as many countries have adopted the use of OSB boards in new construction. We need products that are renewable as much of the OSB boards or sheeting is. It still requires energy in the form of heat and pressure but the trees can be grown specifically for this purpose reducing the need to squander the good wood our mature forests produce for our housing needs. This reduces our carbon dioxide emissions in the long run and preserves the habitat of wildlife in general.  In the future hopefully we can produce an earthy material that has structural and insulating capabilities that is of the earth itself and avoid using trees altogether except for trim purposes when it comes to providing a habitable housing suitable for all humans. Cob homes made of straw and plastered with cement have been around for years. In fact some have been around for 600 years or more. This method of building in today’s age of a house turning 60 and needs to be replaced, has to be stopped as our resources are dwindling and our environment is suffering from our exploitation of resources we need to sustain ourselves now and into the future.