u/unlucky-lochlan

Midwest/Great Lakes region.

Wondering if there’s just a friendly rascal hanging around the neighborhood who really likes leftover chicken or if it was something else

In my (parents) yard there have been 3-4 ash trees that have sadly died due to emerald ash borers.

My dad has finally cut down the final tree and I was wondering if I could use this wood for a couple various projects.

I’ve had a couple projects in mind that would honor the tree amongst other things.

I was wondering if I could use this specific wood for these projects. And if so what would be the best way to prepare and preserve it.

One of the things I want to do is to find a fairly flat area of the outside with the ash borer tracks and then paint an emerald ash borer on it.

Which is why i ask about preservation as well as preparation. I was hoping there’d be a way to preserve the original texture of the tracks.

Alongside that, is there a material out there, other than sandpaper, that could help smooth out the texture of where I want to paint? While sandpaper works, I’m hoping to find something that would like, build up the texture rather than remove it just because I would prefer the ash borer painting to (literally) stand out rather than be sunken