Waterlogged wood

Wood may be preserved for very long time in wet, more or less oxygen free, circumstances. Waterlogged wood from lakes, bogs and archaeological sites beneath the ground water level, may often be very fragile, and will be severe deformed by normal drying. For dendrochronological purposes the deformation may not always be such a great problem as it is for preservation of archaeological artifacts. If the wood is not too porous (i.e in good condition), it often is possible to saw and dry thin sectors for drying in room temperature, and to bee handled as dry-wood samples. If the wood is in good enough condition to be cored with increment borer, it will probably be no problems to dry the cores. Wood in bad condition may be handled as freezed (in a household freezer). The scrimping when the water is evaporating may be an effect of the surface tension. So in order to avoid the scrimping the water have to be replaced with something else, like PEG, or removed by freeze-drying, or kept wet, cold and oxygen free.

See also

• Freeze drying
• Polyethylene glycol
• Melamin resin

Useful references

• Conservation of waterlogged wood by freeze drying National Museum of Denmark (Webcite)
• Conservation of wood artifacts: a handbook by: Achim Unger, Arno P. Schniewind, Wibke Unger Edition: illustrated, annotated, Publiced by Springer, 2001, ISBN 3540415807, ISBN 9783540415800