AusBonsai

Hi all, I got my first set of carving tools. I carved out the centre of a trident i have. For my first attempt it has come up brilliantly. i cured the carving with lime sulphur but on second thought woudl have preferred a more natural colour to the white that it will become. f ro future reference, is there anything i can do, or a different product that will leave the carved wood a different colour to white?

Hi Astroboy, you could drop a hint of black tint into the lime sulfur or use a product like steri-prune .It is a bitumun base product , black in colour ,i paint it on and wipe the accesss off to leave a dark grey/black aged weathered look .Cheers Alpine

thanks Alpine,

i thougth of adding some brown or black acrylic paint in with the lime sulphur but wasnt sure who that would worok. might do some experiementing on an old branch of a tree somewhere and see what different effects i can come up with.

Blow torch

Or not

I have read about before and recently had someone advise using acrylic paint to tint the lime sulfur. So I would give it a shot.

From what I've read, a touch of water based paint in the lime sulphur is the shot. But as you said mate just have a play around on some old branches.

astroboy76 wrote:thanks Alpine,

i thougth of adding some brown or black acrylic paint in with the lime sulphur but wasnt sure who that would worok. might do some experiementing on an old branch of a tree somewhere and see what different effects i can come up with.

Hey Astro,

You can add some black india ink to the lime sulphur to tone it down, you need to experiment with amounts to get the colour you want. Be careful not to get any on the live wood as it is toxic to most living things.

Having said all that i have never used sealer or hardener on anything, I much prefer to let the rot take its course & make features out of it, personal taste and also a bit of slackness on my part. I dont mind spending time carving out of the rotten wood once its gotten under way and it makes for more natural hollows. The most I have ever had to do is drill thru the base of something so the water can escape, the rot will only eat up dead wood & leave live stuff alone.

Matt

a little poster paint, or acrylic will work, just do a few tests to make sure you are happy with the colour, you can go over your trident again once you have worked out what tone you like

ok, another question. i am not sure how, as i thought i was being very careful but i seem to have gotten lime sulphur on the trunk itself in some places. can i safely remove it from the bark?