The Deadwood stage is coming on over the hill

Creating deadwood using a blowtorch!

The Yew tree had been stripped and the wood dry for over two years, I was surprised how hard it was to actually 'burn' the wood and smooth out the rough breaks etc. I protected the foliage with a wet towel and continually wet it during the process. The colour will improve over the years... for now it has had only one coat of Lime sulphur.

how it looked when I started:




Using a Chefs blow torch, then whilst it is hot I use a brass wire brush to remove the burnt wood



As you can see the wood is quite black




The finished result:

Nicely done Tony,Thanks for sharing,we keep on learning
Regards,
Alex

Well, whip crack away!!!

fiona wrote:Well, whip crack away!!!

Fiona... get yur gun

Chefs blow torch? is this Heston Blumenthal.. the other way round, or something?

giomach wrote:Chefs blow torch? is this Heston Blumenthal.. the other way round, or something?

No... its Willy Ekerslike

tony wrote:

fiona wrote:Well, whip crack away!!!

Fiona... get yur gun

A calamitous mix-up of musicals there. Lacks the woman's touch I reckon.



Fiona/Jane/Annie - TYP

Great work Tony. You not using the sandblasting method anymore?

Tony, would you generally recommend drying out deadwood before working on it?

will baddeley wrote:Great work Tony. You not using the sandblasting method anymore?

Hi Will I use sandblasting on BIGGER projects... prepping the tree is laborious when blasting.

Rich, depends on the effect I want... with wet wood I ribbon strip then I like to let the wood dry out then burn.

Looking great Tony.
On the sandblasting theme, have you ever looked into using a hand-held type blaster, as this is something I have considered but have no ideas on the ideal spec for compressor, grain size, etc.?

Hi Tony...very nice result....I like your new avatar

kind regards Yvonne

Justin Hervey wrote:Looking great Tony.
On the sandblasting theme, have you ever looked into using a hand-held type blaster, as this is something I have considered but have no ideas on the ideal spec for compressor, grain size, etc.?

I reckon a 25ltr air compressor with an Long nozzle paint spraying canister would do the trick for small sand blasting work. It would allow you to control the the spray easily. That would be my plan. Using silver sand or silica sand, which comes in big bags for around £4. Again you would have to test it, depending on what level of depth you wanted 'carve'
Untested by myself as yet mind, but I plan to get hold of a spray nozzle and give it a try....

Bry

tony wrote:

Rich, depends on the effect I want... with wet wood I ribbon strip then I like to let the wood dry out then burn.

Will,
Here is a link to a site for sandblasting equipment more suitable for smaller trees and its somewhere near to Geoff's as well.

In relation to Western musicals I was thinking of "I talk to the trees" from Paint your Wagon

Doh!
Forgot to add the link!
www.everythingairbrush.com/acatalog/Sandblasting.html

nice work!!
time and weather changes will only make it better