Irish Bog Oak

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Bog wood
is ancient timber which has been preserved through being in wet, anaerobic conditions so it is

most easily found where a farmer has been draining wet land or in cutaway bog. For the farmer, bog wood can be a nuisance and may simply be piled up at the side of the field. You do, of course, need to ask permission to remove bog wood and farmers are increasingly aware of the value of bog oak as a resource – so you may get it for nothing or you might have to part with a few pounds for the privilege. Unfortunately, once bog wood is exposed to the open air it starts to degrade so wood which has been left in the open for some years may be too rotten to bother about – this can be the case with bog wood found in old cutaway bog.

There are four main bog woods, fir and oak being the commonest;

Bog oak; Typically looks a dirty grey-brown when found, try chipping a bit of the outer layer off and if it’s jet black inside it’s probably bog oak. Most work done in the class is with bog oak.

Bog fir/pine; Can be bleached white outside but is more like an orangey red inside, more orangey than a modern ‘antique pine’. It is more difficult to get fine detail working bog fir because it can split with the grain compared to bog oak.

Bog yew; Less common, black on outside, a purplish shade on inside.

Bog birch; Black but has a different grain to oak.

Your wood may need to be air dried for 6 – 8 months. If there is a load of clay or muck on it you may wish to hose it down first – it may be home to a wide variety of insects and worms (!). Keep the wood covered in an airy place.

Tools

The basic tools are;

– A woodworking mallet, preferably wooden

– A gouge, a small u shaped chisel

– A flat chisel, perhaps 1 inch/2.5 cms

– A V tool, a small v shaped chisel useful for cutting lines and indentations.

Other tools which class members would use include various kinds of rasps for cleaning up wood (a plastic handled one is available very inexpensively), scrapers, a spoke shave (like a two handled small plane), files of various kinds or shaped files and so on. If you start with the basics you can often try out someone else’s tools to see what you might use.

For finishing off, you can use sandpaper, power tool sanders, and fine wire wool, as well as teak oil or linseed oil and turpentine (half and half). A wood polish would usually be the last thing to be applied; depending on its position or the amount of care you expect it to receive, you could use a varnish but most protective varnishes will yellow and are not a great idea. You can however experiment with water based varnish, especially on bog pine – but you have to apply it carefully because if it dries in an accumulation it will dry white rather than clear which will make your piece look strange.

Preparation

You need to strip off all the dirt, rotten and dodgy bits which will never last to the finished piece, using rasps, chisels, scrapers and what you will. However, until you have decided what your piece will be you’re probably wiser leaving sound ‘miscellaneous bits’ in place – they may just turn out to be a crucial part of your final design; unwanted pieces can be cut off when your design is finalised.

What do you do with your wood? There are 3 main approaches, which can overlap, and you can use one or any combination of them;

1. Copy an existing item. This could be a sculpture, an item from a painting, a household item, anything.
2. Carve what you want. In this case you do need a piece of wood which will allow you to achieve your masterpiece. In this approach the wood is simply a ‘blank canvas’ for you.
3. Go with what the wood suggests. Leaving a piece of wood in your home and staring at it for a week or two can yield results if you can’t immediately decide, e.g. it’s a boat riding on the waves. You can be surprised what your mind can see in a piece if you let it. If the wood is already an interesting shape, you may not need to do much more than clean it up and polish it to have a beautiful piece, possibly adding a figure or two or a small design.

Most people will use chalk to mark out the initial design, and indeed further details as the work progresses.

Further on and finishing off

A good question is when you start to oil your piece – the general rule of thumb would be to do it when it has taken shape but before you do finishing details. It can help by putting life into a piece and make you more aware of what the finished colour will be. You can use teak oil – available in Pound Shops – or linseed oil and turpentine (or turpentine substitute as the latter can be unavailable). You may do one oiling and then one or two more when finishing completely. It can take a couple of days to soak in properly. If working with bog pine and you want to keep it light coloured, do not oil the piece but move straight to finishing with wax or a water-based varnish (you can test an underneath, hidden part with different finishes to see what works).

‘The shakes’ in bog wood carving is when a piece is not as robust as it might be and may have a weak or rotten spot or lines which affect your working. Apart from taking any such aspects of the wood into account in your initial design, it is possible to strengthen a piece by using wood glue (if necessary clamping the piece to hold it together until it has set) or even using wood glue and sawdust (of the same wood) to fill a spot or glue an essential part which has broken. Wood glue initially makes the sawdust look lighter than the wood because it is white but it dries clear.

The extent to which you get a highly polished finish is dependent partly on the amount of polishing work you do, and that is a product of both what you want for the finished product and the amount of elbow grease you apply! If you want a high polish you need to do a lot of smoothing with sandpaper and wire wool before waxing.

For finishing off, one readily available wood wax is Briwax; you would use Jacobean Dark Oak colour for bog oak and Pine or Clear wax for lighter woods.

Bog wood is timber that has been preserved through being in wet, anaerobic conditions for thousands of years. It is commonly found in areas where farmers have been draining wetland or in cutaway bog. While bog wood can be a nuisance for farmers, they are increasingly aware of its value as a resource. If you plan on removing bog wood, it is important to obtain permission from the landowner. Once bog wood is exposed to the open air, it starts to degrade, so it is important to take care of it properly.

There are four main types of bog wood: oak, fir, yew, and birch. Bog oak is the most commonly worked with in woodworking classes and can be identified by its jet black interior. Once you have your bog wood, it is important to air dry it for 6-8 months and clean off any dirt or muck that may be present.

When working with bog wood, the basic tools you will need include a woodworking mallet, a gouge, a flat chisel, and a V tool. Other tools, such as rasps, spoke shaves, and files, may also be useful. Once you have stripped off any unwanted bits, you can begin planning your design. This can be done by copying an existing item, carving what you want, or going with what the wood suggests. The course tutor is always available to offer suggestions and lend a helping hand if needed.

To finish your piece, you can use sandpaper, power tool sanders, wire wool, and teak oil or linseed oil and turpentine. Bog pine can also be finished with a water-based varnish, but it must be applied carefully to avoid drying white. A highly polished finish can be achieved with a lot of smoothing with sandpaper and wire wool before waxing. Briwax is a readily available wood wax that can be used for finishing off your piece.

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