Thread: Timber etched pictures from 1988 need help please

When you say etched do you mean pyrography?
Lyle

Yes l'd say so now, l had to google it! Thought the roof on the milking shed does not look burnt....

I can't begin to advise how to restore them. Other than to say No Sanding.
Hope someone can offer more.
Lyle

Unless you've got an incredible eye for detail and an amazing hand to eye coordination I'd say it'll be near impossible to do.

You best bet will be to take it to someone that has a Laser CNC machine, get them to digitise the originals and replicate. If you're brave give them the original to enhance but there's still a high change it'll not quite look the same as pyrography is quite bit of art rather than science.

it possible that the original art work was coated with a varnish of some sort which has yellowed with age.
An art restorer might be able to offer some advice on removing the finish.

I was once asked to do the same sort of restoration on a pair of turned wooden vases that were decorated with pyrography. They were ancient Grecian scenes, on 1960’s pine, with lots of ancient naked male athletes that were, to be honest, truly awful! The vases had stood for many years with one side facing an open fireplace and, on that side, they had yellowed dramatically. The owner thankfully didn’t hold out much hope and understood that FAILURE was a high probability! On these vases, a dab of methylated spirits confirmed that the finish was shellac and so I was able to wipe them all down with a soft rag soaked in metho and, as the finish softened, the yellowed shellac simply wiped off. If however they are finished with a ‘modern’ clear finish then metho shouldn’t work.
I would find an unimportant patch, possibly under a frame, and put on a dab of methylated spirit. If the finish goes ‘tacky’ then it is most probably shellac and more metho MAY then clean them. If metho doesn’t soften the finish, then I would next try a mild paint stripper and one of the citrus strippers would be a good starting point.
I agree with Ian that an art restorer will probably have some own-mixed witches brew that may do the job but the 2 above will be a low risk and low cost, starting point?
In Shannon Lush’s(?) cleaning books published by the ABC, she had a recipe for a varnish remover that was safe on oil paintings and this started with potato peelings and female urine! My sensitive nature has blocked my brain from remembering the rest of the recipe but I do remember it required fermenting for a month and lots of filtering before use
fletty

After trying the metho, if it doesn't work, you could try laquer thinners before the paint stripper.

I wouldn't touch them. Pyrography results in charcoal = carbonized wood, and nothing else.
It is brittle, lacks cohesion and is soft as artist's pastel chalk to rub off.
Let me take a fingernail to your best oil painting. Just don't.

Go ahead and get them scanned to elect some process of replication.
The digital data can be manipulated and nothing is amiss.

Sometimes we just have to accept the effect time has on artworks because any 'restoration' can do damage. I have a pair of C19th engraved/carved cow horns that have lost the crispness of detail with time. I looked at lots of ways to 'fix' them but in the end I only applied a protective wax. I think that both fletty and Robson Valley are correct, despite the apparent conflict. If the 'varnish' is shellac and easily removed you could carefully reduce the yellowing that is reducing the contrast. But, if it is a yellow polyurethane, which is quite likely, then any removal attempt will destroy the images.

Leave it alone and live with what you have.

Chance of losing or badly fading almost everything in cleaning is extremely high.

Cheers - Neil

PS Done many pyro pictures over the years (not for the last 20+) but never had any fade to that extent. Always used either weak dewaxed white shellac mix as a sealer (1 part of the shellac to around 8 parts metho) or no finish at all as many were on bread boards and cheese boards, etc, Those faded badly over time with continual washing, but pictures that I've seen since are still vibrant.

Never kept any for myself, mostly sold or given away as presents.