Homemade treatment for woodworm holes

[Joe Fabbri]

Hi guys,

Some of the wooden planes I just acquired have some worm holes in them. I want to make sure they're dead and gone, and I'm wondering if there's some simple method of determing if they're still active and if so treating the holes. Are there any common household cleaning solutions that work? If so, how should they be applied and for how long about?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Joe

[Gary Max]

I have a cheap Microwave out in the shop just for this job.

[Joe Fabbri]

Hi Gary,

I didn't think about a microwave, that does sound like an easy solution. No ill effects to the wood by doing that, Gary?

Now, what do you do with a 26" long jointer...?

[Zach Dillinger]

Stick 'em in the freezer for a while. Make sure to take the irons out first...

[Joe Fabbri]

I'm not sure I'd want to put it in my freezer, and I don't know if I'd even have room. Maybe I could leave it outside overnight, when it's below freezing? Probably not as definitive as the microwave unfortunately.

[Zach Dillinger]

Outside while freezing might work, but you'd probably have to leave it out there a while. I've put planes in the freezer, minus the irons, with no ill effects and no continued worm problems. Might not be as definitive, but you'll probably want a lead vest if you find a microwave big enough to fit a 26" jointer... HA!

[Joe Fabbri]

Haha, yeah, unfortunately, it's the jointer only I think that has the worm holes.

Aside from the mircrowave and freezing, are there any chemicals that won't harm the wood that are easy to find or something I could mix together? Some sort of household cleaner?

[David Weaver]

I doubt there is anything alive in the worm holes in your plane. You could BLO the thing and then wax the entire plane with briwax, though, and guaranteed any bugs that are in the plane behind the plugged briwax blobs will be dead in short order.

( i mention blo not because it will do anything to the bugs that I know of, but because you may wish you'd have used it after you've paste waxed the thing, and it will be too late to do it again for a while ).

[Joe Fabbri]

Hi David,

I doubt it also, because the planes in question were all in an old chest (it appears it was a shipwright's chest). A few transitional planes were in there also, but I suspect these were added later on by subsequent owners. There are also a few larger coffin smoothers, and two other wooden jacks. The two wooden jacks and the larger jointer have the worm holes in them, but the other planes do not at all. If they were alive still, I suspect they would have went after these too at some point, especially the coffin smoothers as these appear very old as well and are cap-ironed, which I think usually indicates being a shipwright's.

Anyway, yes I may apply some linseed oil to it before I wax it, it really adds some depth to the wood.

Joe