Consolidating panel painting

Petar Gerasimov <pgerasimov [at] yahoo__com> writes

>A team of conservators are working at the reinforcement
>(consolidation) of the several tempera panel painting. The wood have
>a great damage caused by worms, so it is like a sponge. It is
>causing the problems during the treating of the surface-painting
>layer and the ground.
>
>Several methods, like soaking into wax solution or using plexigum
>solution, are in option. Does anyone have experience with this kind
>of problems, or have new methods and new solutions for this matter.

My experience with wood severely degraded by woodworm has mostly
been with polychromed sculpture, but as the materials are
essentially the same, I thought letting you know of a treatment I
learned in Croatia might be helpful.  A small amount of white spirit
is first introduced to the areas to be treated to break the surface
tension.  A 50% mixture of Plextol 500 and water is then injected
into the voids until they are filled and allowed to dry over night.
The next day the process is repeated until no air gaps remain.  When
the Plextol is set the holes can be filled with a non-waxy filler
and the tenting and flaking can be eased down with a heated spatula.
I have found that introduction of wax into a porous and hydrophilic
systems prevents the absorption and release of moisture necessary to
maintain the equilibrium of the constituent materials and prevents
the introduction of more sympathetic aqueous consolidants in the
future.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:51
                 Distributed: Saturday, April 15, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-13-51-005
                                  ***