Should wood carvers wax or seal their wood carvings? If so, when should you do this process? What types of waxes and seals have been used successfully? These may be some of the same questions that you are asking yourself when you hear a veteran wood carver talk about applying wax or sealer to their wood carving projects, especially their walking sticks.
Wax and sealer may benefit you in your wood carving finishing. Sometimes the wax or seal is applied before painting and sometimes after painting if not both. One benefit to using seal before painting is that it can aid in keeping the paint from soaking into the wood too heavily and running into areas that it is not intended to be. It also can help keep the end grain from eating all of your paint and appearing much darker than the rest of the wood carving. The end grain without any treatment will act like a sponge and soak up more paint than other areas. Continue reading »