carved wooden thing from privy

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I'm with Melinda, needle case....

 

[cowseatmaize]

I had it in the freezer for a few months hoping to save it from splitting,

I never heard of that. I always thought water expanded when frozen. Is that a freeze drying thing?

 

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ORIGINAL: cowseatmaize
I never heard of that. I always thought water expanded when frozen. Is that a freeze drying thing?

Indeed it is...

From here http://www.westbaywoodturners.com/tutorial/Drying_wood.htm

Freeze Drying

We had a very famous turner come from Canada and demo at our club several years ago. During his demo, we had a discussion about freeze drying. He asked the very simple question “How come all the trees in Canada still have to be dried? It gets plenty cold doesn’t it?†Seemed to make sense to me, so I really wasn’t interested in this. I do know that a number of people will through pieces in the frig/freezer to hold the moisture if they get interrupted. I had a piece of Apricot, which has a very bad habit of moving and cracking. I didn’t have time to turn it when I got it, so I put it in a bag, and threw it in the freezer. About a year or so later I “found itâ€. Dry as a bone, and very stable. It hadn’t even been rough turned. So, I do think that Freeze drying does work. No idea how long it would have to be in the freezer. But this definitely isn’t practical for any significant amount of wood.

 

[cowseatmaize]

Interesting but different.
Cutting and drying live wood I think is different than 100+ year wood being buried in a moist environment and frozen. Just thinking out loud.
The piece in general looks too perfect to be wood anyway but even a semi porous stone or stone with a small crack will hold water and I think be prone to splitting. Maybe the time between digging and freezing makes a difference also. [8|]
Cool discussion!

 

[bostaurus]

“How come all the trees in Canada still have to be dried? "
Because they still have roots and are pulling water from the ground...

 

[GuntherHess]

Needle case seems reasonable. The knob at the top is probably just part of the decoration.
The bottom cap is missing.

 

[digger dun]

I'm afraid it couldn't be a needle case because the threaded holes on either end are only 1/4" deep. If the hole extended deeply into the body of this thing it could work like a needle case, but that is not how this thing crafted.

 

[GuntherHess]

ok, so it probably a handle then, maybe for a ladies hand mirror

 

[cc6pack]

some type of finial?

 

[GuntherHess]

I was thinking a clock finial at first but I couldn't find any even close.