Expert: maura macaluso - 8/6/2009

Question
Hi, I just returned from Tanzania where I purchased a large rosewood elephant sculpture.  Unfortunately, one of its ears did not fair well on the journey home and was broken off.  What is the best way to repair it?  What kind of glue?  How do I sand and polish it after repair?  Any other advise you can lend would be greatly appreciated!
Regards.

Answer
Hi Virginia,  Good morning, I envy you your trip to Tanzania, that must have been fabulous.  Now as to your question.  Rosewood is a name used to cover a variety of exotic woods.  What I suspect you have may actually be African blackwood of the rosewood family.  Rosewood and its close relatives is a wood which contains many resins which sometimes makes glues difficult to adhere but one of the better glues to use is actually the standard wood glue, Titebond 2, available at any decent hardware store.  Apply a thin layer of glue(the less glue the better, not the other way around) to both the ear and the main part of the elephant.  Line the broken ear up as perfectly as possible with the place it broke off from, this is very important.  Normally, you would need to clamp this very tightly until almost all of the glue squeezes out but this will be difficult to do with the shape of your ear.  You can get creative if possible and try perhaps using a strong rubber band to hold it in place and exert some pressure.  If this is not possible, you may need to use your hands to hold the piece in place and to exert some pressure for around 20 mins or so. becareful not to move the ear at all during this time as you may break the glue bond as it is curing. During this process, use a clean cloth to wipe away any glue which is squeezing out. As your hands will be tied up pressing the broken part, you probably should have someone else assist to do the wiping. If this process is successful, you may not wind up with any distracting glue line to deal with at all. Once the ear is firmly in place, allow it to sit undisturbed for at least 24 hours, checking it often in the first hour, checking to make sure the ear has not moved at all. After leaving it sit at least a day, if you do wind up with an unsightly glue line, you will need to use a small bit of sandpaper of a medium grit(around 100-150) to sand the dried glue away. follow that by using a finer sand paper(300-400) to smooth it perfectly.  If the glue wiping was not done, or not done adequately, you may wind up with some gobs of dried glue which can carefully be removed with a very sharp non-serrated knife before moving on to the sanding step.  When scraping and/or sanding this area, try to keep the area very small and confined to the area of repair so you don't wind up needing to do a major refinishing job.  Once the ear is properly glued and dried, hopefully the glue line is not noticeable at all.  Luckily for you, third world carvers use very simple finishing techniques. A clear wax may have been used to give it a bit of shine or perhaps the resins of the wood itself were simply buffed out nicely. Try using a clean shoe brush or a bit of clean cotton towel to simply buff it.  If the shine does not come up a bit to match the rest of the elephants shine, get a can of neutral color shoe polish creme(paste not liquid, sold in small flat cans, such as kiwi) apply some polish, wipe off the excess and buff out as mentioned earlier. Beeswax or any other clear drying wax can also be used.  Do not use car wax or any other wax which will dry to a whitish color. This should fix your damage for you. You will always know there was damage but just like any carver will know where their mistakes are, 99% of observers will never be able to detect the repair. Thanks for the carving question and good luck with your repair.      

Maura  www.carvinginnyc.com