2. Study on Conservation Science of Cultural Properties(Papers presented at the 35th Annual Meeting, April, 1989, Tokyo)

Abstract

The wooden objects had been buried underground almost completely soaked in water. Therefore, the wood was oversaturated with water, and the cellulose, the main component of wood, was nearly decomposed. If these wooden objects were let dry in a natural condition, they would quickly shrink and lose their original shapes. The freeze-drying method is principally applied to these wooden objects. First, the water in wooden objects is sufficiently replaced by tert-butyl alcohl. It is safer to treat the wooden objects with tertiary butanol of a low concentration first, and then, to impregnate them with pure tertiary butanol.