Gay Malin asked:

>I have some wood posts recently excavated that I wish to conserve with PEG.  I
know that they need to be soaked, but what >exactly is the entire process for
doing this?  Any help is greatly appreciated.

Impregnating degraded wood with PEG requires a bit of experience. First of all
you need to establish what grade of PEG you need. Then you will need to soak the
wood in PEG, warmed if you use one of the higher grades. You will need to weigh
the wood regularly until it stops increasing in weight. Then you will need to
freeze- dry the wood. My best advice is to get a conservator, who has dealt with
excavated timber before, to look at it. In the meantime I suggest that you keep
the wood in a moist or wet storage to prevent it from drying out. You might want
to add some biocide to prevent fungal growth.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

George Bailey
Objects/Metals Conservator
Australian War Memorial.

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