Like Liz, I find freezing to be very effective for sectioning poor material. A note of caution, however - once the wood has defrosted, it can be in a worse state than originally, so only to be recommended on samples, or wood that will be discarded after id.
Best wishes,
Dana
Dana Challinor
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford
St Cross College, University of Oxford
From: Archaeological wood and charcoal discussion list [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Ginevra Coradeschi [[log in to unmask]] Sent: 27 March 2017 22:26 To:[log in to unmask] Subject: MOUNTING-EMBEDDING OF WATERLOGGED WOOD
Hello,
I am a PhD student and I am working with some samples of waterlogged woods from a Roman archaeological site in Lisbon.
The fragments of wood are very spongy and is impossible to prepare any kind of section using a razor blade. I have the opportunity to use both a cryotome and a microtome. I read some articles where is strongly advised to embedding the sample of wood using
CARBOWAX and than to prepare section using the microtome. I would like to know whether or not exists a protocol to prepare the sample. I am open to any kind of advise or different methodology.
