New timber conservation technique?

slowburner

Might this experimental technique for conserving delicate timber have an application in Irish archaeology (on a smaller scale)?
Our bogs have been an incredibly rich source of finds and assemblages.
The acid, anaerobic environment frequently preserves timber and other organic materials in their entirety, but leaves them fragile, and troublesome to conserve.

By placing the ship — La Belle — in a constant environment of up to 60 degrees below zero, more than 300 years of moisture will be safely removed from hundreds of European oak and pine timbers and planks. The freeze-dryer, located at the old Bryan Air Force base several miles northwest of College Station, is 40 feet long and 8 feet wide — the biggest such machine on the continent devoted to archaeology.

http://news.yahoo.com/17th-century-shipwreck-freeze-dried-rebuilt-071126484.html

It'll be interesting to see how and if the technique works out.
Drying wood artificially, is always a risky business.

Reader1937

The freeze dry sounds good, but its how it is treated afterwards that makes the difference. You either have to seal the wood or have a moisture free enviroment. Some timbers are more hydroscopic or have more of a propensity for attaracting ambient moisture than others, but they all have it. I am not sure of timber recovered from a long term anaerobic atmosphere, but 19% MC is usually the start point for rot. I saw the humidifier setup at the General Indian Archives in Seville and it was a treat. Cheaper to run in a hotter and less humid country though.

mocmo

Nothing particularly experimental about this technique, it's been used for years. The NMI have a freeze dryer in their conservation lab and use it and a combination of polyethylene glycol to conserve timbers and wooden finds...albeit on a smaller scale than that mentioned in the article.

Reader1937

Worked in the timber industry and just starting Archaeology in a serious way - ty for the reply.

slowburner

Reader1937 wrote: »

... its how it is treated afterwards that makes the difference. You either have to seal the wood or have a moisture free enviroment. ...

mocmo wrote: »

polyethylene glycol .

aka PEG - powerful stuff.