Is there anything special needed to prepare driftwood that you find besides boiling water? I found a large piece a while ago, and it's been sitting in my iguanas cage for a while, but I think it'd look better underwater :]
Way to big to boil, so should I just dump boiling water on it and let it sit in the sun?
With a few big bits i got a while back i just poured boiling water on them then soaked them in a kiddies paddling pool for a week then poured boiling water on it again.
wash, scrub it nice with a bristle brush, wash, let dry, if it fits in your oven, let it dry in there really quick, then drown that sucker in water, you might have to weigh it down. hopefully you have a hard wood piece that isn't rotting apart. usually when you scrub it down, you can make that decision that it's either inappropriate or rotting too much in water.
good luck. you can probably research it more thoroughly in the advanced search: diy section.
Thankyou for the replies, so, any parts soft enough to remove with a bristle brush? Or should I remove anything soft enough to just kind of scrape off with a knife? I can't really soak it in anytihng I have, and it wont fit in an oven, it's around 5' long
lawn and leaf bags work well for soaking...
wrap the wood with towels then stuff it in the bag..
(obviously the bag will not hold XXX gallons of water.. thats what the towels are for)
then use string/rope/tape the hold the bag in place and let it sit in the sun for few days/weeks.. this works best in the summer when the sun gets hot enough to kill stuff inside the bag.. now that its cooler out it might just make things rot faster (ive only done this in the summer)
wrapping the wood with a towel wont do much for tannins but it will help hatch any lil creepycrawlies that need water to hatch..
lawn and leaf bags work well for soaking...
wrap the wood with towels then stuff it in the bag..
(obviously the bag will not hold XXX gallons of water.. thats what the towels are for)
then use string/rope/tape the hold the bag in place and let it sit in the sun for few days/weeks.. this works best in the summer when the sun gets hot enough to kill stuff inside the bag.. now that its cooler out it might just make things rot faster (ive only done this in the summer)
wrapping the wood with a towel wont do much for tannins but it will help hatch any lil creepycrawlies that need water to hatch..
Here is the piece after being sprayed down with a hose, sand on it is off of the roof it's sitting on, doesn't feel like it's rotting at all yet, does it look alright to use?
