The Client Sent My Sculpture Back... DESTROYED

A wild story of how a previously carved sculpture ended up infested with termites and shattered into pieces. I also carve a life size bear using acrylic. What do you want to see me carve next!? #woodworking #carving #sculpture

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[BMSculptures]

Would you want to watch a Catch Cook & Carve video????

[clay]

I worked at an airport and we had an enormous sculpture made of wood and millions of termites living there rent-free. When they x-rayed it, you could see the nest they had produced, with many holes for getting in and out. The termites were very much alive and at our terminal, we had an irradiator machine that used low amounts of radiation to kill anything alive including eggs, even down to bacteria. It cost the importer just £40 to have this done and there were no lasting effects on the sculpture. Some airports allow you to use their facilities including the irradiator! If you get them again, ask if you can use their services.

[brandonrobinson]

I'm impressed you kept trying to fix the bear. The third time around of finding even more termite tunnels and a live termite, I would've burned the sculpture and tossed it in a lake

[MykeVS]

The resiliency of the termites was as impressive as the sculpture.

[Brandonwithathought]

The termites did the damage already. The client shipped it back at their convenience and rightfully so as you said. Great call, the problem started with you, and it will end with you. I respect the outlook in general. Not to mention WOW on the work!!!

[machinegundevildog]

Nothing like bringing a statue filled with termites into a woodworking shop

[lanceallenmcginnis]

10 year pest control guy here. I didn't have the patience to look through all the comments. This may have already been discussed. Drywood termite eggs can lay dormant for more than a year. Dont put the bear anywhere near your other woodworking processes or supplies. Some types of pest eggs (mostly wood boring beetles) can lay dormant from months to over 30 years. This depends on several factors, including the species of beetle, the temperature, and the humidity.

[PsRohrbaugh]

It's funny because the video I watched before this was a woodworker talking about the importance of putting your wood in a kiln to eliminate anything living in the wood. Then I get this video.

[jayobannon]

In Hawaii, we put termite or beetle infested wood in a freezer for a week at twenty below. Most fumigants that a homeowner can use are worthless.

[teamseacts]

On the vacuum bagging a porous item....when you pull the vacuum, it causes the air inside the item (the wood) to expand and as it expands, the air travels out of the item (the wood). This escaping air is actually taking your pesticide foam away from the interior of the wood and moving it to the exterior of the wood. Once the vacuum is established and held, there is no movement/motion other than the same wicking process you would get if you just let the foam sit on the object in ambient air. There's also an argument to be made that the vacuum causes the moisture in the foam to evaporate much more quickly which also reduces the foam's ability to move into the part like you were intending to do. However, the vacuum does make life hard for any living creature so you've definitely impacted them with that - but I argue that a single application of vacuum actually reduces the chance of the foam getting deeper into the part.

If you want the foam to be pulled deeply into the wood, cycling the vacuum on and off will do it. As you release the vacuum, the air rushes back into the pores of the wood and any foam sealing up those pores gets sucked inside. If you were to soak the wood with the pesticide and cycle the vacuum on and off, it will certainly pull the foam deeper into the wood. You can see this effect if you've planned a long day of smoking meats but forgot to soak the wood chips intended for smoking (ask me how I know, lol). Put wood chips into tub of water inside a vacuum chamber - if you pull vacuum on it once, you see the bubbles coming out of the wood but the water doesn't ingress to the chips any more noticeably than if they sat in ambient pressure for the same amount of time ...but CYCLE that vacuum several times and the wood starts sinking after the third or fourth cycle. Six cycles of vacuum and ambient pressure and there is practically no air left in the wood and it's completely saturated.

[aikane]

I know of a case where an antique piece of furniture was purchased and brought home. It was full of termites. The termites migrated to the house and caused $75, 000.00 worth of damage to the house.

[astro.]

2:35 To be honest I can't even blame the client because I would be furious and want my money back if I was sent a termite-infested sculpture.
Understandably it's an unforeseen and unfortunate mishap, but even if the shipping company didn't completely destroy it, it'd still be crawling with termites and be riddled with holes on the inside.

[Frankinsteinguitar]

I feel your pain; I've had two of my custom guitars wrecked by customs when entering the US. One had 13 half inch holes drilled into the body searching for drugs. Then many of the electronics were stolen and the remains were tossed loosely into the box and forwarded to the client. The second had its Birds Eye neck snapped in half and electronics removed and stolen. Like number one, the carcass was tossed into the box and sent to the client. Neither drug search found anything. Both clients returned the guitars to me and I refunded their money from the DHL insurance. The restoration process was arduous to say the least and took a lot of creativity to hide the damages. Both instruments were eventually sold at a loss with full disclosure as to their history. I no longer ship anything to the USA.

[BricktowneMedia]

Huge respect to you man. I would have felt so defeated and demoralized after receiving the Grizzly statue in that shape (it broke my heart to see it and it's not even my sculpture!). The fact that you could push through that kind if disappointment, and move forward with such a solid and stunning repair says so much about you as a person. Truly inspiring. Thank you for sharing the ups AND the downs.

[watkinsjames]

I'd like to suggest you start looking into baking your wood before your builds. Im thinking this and got the idea from pallets lol. Im a driver and work shipping and receiving for the last 20 yeara now. We ship out of the country and anything being shipped to a different country has to be on pallets that have been baked and marked as such. They do this to kill any and every bug included termites.

[jadziajagoda]

The termites likely crowled out of the bear and infested the client’s house. I can totally understand his frustration. You’re in the wrong by trying to fix something which should be burned to ashes.

[IonFONE]

Someone I know that's in medical and loves to work with wood recommended to me the following when looking at larger pieces: Use a stethoscope and check all around. If you hear *anything*, it's not good. Alternatively, get it x-rayed to check or just blasting with radiation to kill anything inside. He had one project go very wrong, and started using his skills from other fields to pro-actively identify issues. They said bug bombing or even putting things into a larger chest freezer didn't work 100% when testing samples that were infested.

[DonoVideoProductions]

I'm sorry, but I would never trust that there aren't more termites inside. Call it. Carve another bear.

[davegardner]

I have to be honest, if you pay tens of thousands of dollars for a sculpture, you may expect to get a reaction if you believe the termites came from within the sculpture. In the interest of fairness, it is important to get both sides of the story.

[Gamerpotatoe]

Title should be, I sold my client a faulty product