Puzzle conservation

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Pio2001
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Re: Puzzle conservation

Post by Pio2001 » September 5th, 2013, 12:32 am

bluesign2k wrote:
jack wrote:I wonder what the inside will look like when you finally succeed in disassembling! After years of darkness... :lol:
Based on this thread, one can only assume it'll be nice vivid colours and smell like a cheese board? :lol:
For me, wacapou's smell reminds more leather than cheese :ugeek:

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Lucie
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Re: Puzzle conservation

Post by Lucie » September 6th, 2013, 12:24 pm

Here some tips for the conservation of wood puzzles (I work in the antiques business), most important is : no direct sunlight! Keep the puzzles far from radiators, and far from humidity, dont leave them all the time in boxes, but give them some air from time to time. Big changes in temperature are also bad. You can enhance the colour of the wood with wax polish, this also prevents the wood to take up moisture.
And you have to accept that wood ages, and changes colour, a little patina can make the puzzles more beautiful. :)

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Pio2001
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Re: Puzzle conservation

Post by Pio2001 » May 24th, 2014, 8:40 pm

Hi,
Here is Vinco's plum, exposed to direct sunlight during 6 hours with a black mask hiding the center of the piece.

The side on the left was facing the sun. The side on the right was not directly facing the sun.

Image

Plum definitely darkens, but it also seems to me that the colour becomes less and less vivid with time. It may be guessed looking at the top part of the piece that is on the right.

One of my puzzles became very beautiful with time. It is an ocvalhedron all in plum. The picture below was taken in april 2011 :

Image

And this one is from april 2014 :

Image

The puzzle was kept in a showroom far from daylight for 2 years and a half, and the showroom was in a brighter place during the winter of 2013-2014, though completely away from sunlight.
It was looking quite pale at the beginning, but the contrasting parts has become very beautiful with time.

Vinco just released a new batch of puzzles. Among them, another Ocvalhedron in plum :

Image

It is more contrasted and more coloured than mine. I would not let this one in a showroom. I would be afraid that the red and orange tones may turn into brown.

hetroyer622
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Re: Puzzle conservation

Post by hetroyer622 » May 10th, 2015, 8:13 pm

Here we have a lot of discussion about preserving (conserving) wood from sunlight and heat etc., but little or nothing about treating wood with varnish or oils. I have always treated my puzzles with Danish oil. It enhances the color of wood and facilitates cleaning of the wood. Does anyone else use oils or varnish or any sort of treatment? Any comments about the use of Danish oil? I got into this puzzle business about a year and a half ago and have not seen any negative effects so far.

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Pio2001
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Re: Puzzle conservation

Post by Pio2001 » May 12th, 2015, 12:08 pm

Hi,
We can see the effect of linseed oil on pine looking at some of Maurice Vigouroux' oldest puzzles.

Here is carolina pine, waxed : http://www.puzzle-place.com/wiki/File:C ... 6_pine.jpg
And here is the same pine with linseed oil applied 20 years ago : http://www.puzzle-place.com/wiki/File:D ... dinate.jpg

The puzzle was disassembled and reassembled differently after its storage. The parts that were exposed to light turned red, not the parts that were inside the puzzle. It doesn't look good.
Moreover, the wood expanded. A hammer had to be used to disassemble the 102-piece diagonal burr that was in the same case.

But the sides of the pieces of some of these old puzzles were sanded in order to adjust their thickness, and the result was great. The dull red stain turned into a nice bright orange : http://www.puzzle-place.com/wiki/File:D ... urr_28.jpg

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