Antique wood preparation by inorganic salts treatment and its performance

Conservation of historic timber structures is of great importance for cultural inheritance and community identity promotion. However, most of the current methods available for ancient architecture protection significantly affect their original appearance and aesthetic value and finding wood elements that are similar to the ones in existing historic timber structures is not easy. Here we report a simple and effective method to archaize wood, Castanopsis sclerophylla, by ferric chloride (FeCl 3 ) treatment without significantly affecting its mechanical properties and durability. The lightness and the color indexes of treated wood are similar to the ancient wood sample. The mechanical properties of FeCl 3 treated wood are not statistically different from the control. Our durability testing results indicated that FeCl 3 treated wood has good decay resistance against Irpex lacteus and Trametes versicolor with a mass loss of less than 10 % . This study provides a convenient method for the restoration and protection of ancient buildings.