Wax Tablet Question...

[Lucius Duccius Rufinus]

Guys, i've just made my first wax tablet, and the wood is looking decidedly "new" was wondering what varnishes / oils / coats of stuff the romans would have used to treat wood, want to keep it as authentic as possible!





I do realise the wax is a bit light in one part and a bit heavy in another, i will sort this

[Matthew Amt]

Ave!

Unless there is some analysis of surviving examples that show the wood was treated, I'd leave it plain. That's the evidence, so that's authentic. The first tablet I made was maple, then I made a nice cherry one for my sister--and THEN I found out the originals are usually pine! Rats... There were certainly tons of choices of nice wood available, so no point in using pine and then trying to make it look nicer. (Stains are mostly a modern way of making cheap pine furniture look like something else!)

Don't worry, after a few months kicking around in your satchel, it won't look "new" any more! Besides, SOMEtimes things were new back then, eh?

Matthew

[P. Clodius Secundus]

I agree with Matt. Unless anyone has testing or a direct written reference to the contrary, I'd leave it natural. Certainly no modern finishes such as polyurethane. In this application, where you may be heating it up to "erase" the contents, you might want to oil the wood to prevent drying and checking. For that I'd use linseed oil. It gives the wood a nice satin glow and allows the wood to darken and age naturally. Just be careful what you do with the rags you use to apply it. If left in a pile in the corner somewhere, they have been known to spontaneouly combust.

[A_Volpe]

Yeah, leave it plain. One less thing to worry about.

I added a very quick and lite coat of linseed oil on my tablet a while ago. I re-applied some oil I think 2 years ago, really only to prevent splinters.

Leaving it open on the backshelf of the car on a hot day makes 'refreshing' the wax surface really easy

[Robert]

And to stop the linseed oil from being sticky and have good penetration, add 10 % terpentine (very period, too). It makes it dry faster and soak into the wood deeper. Its a very good period treatment for all things of wood. Because oak also splits well into boards, as does beech, these could also be used. Pine was not really indignious to all parts of the frontier, and many tablets saw a good deal of reuse, being sent back and forth, so a stronger wood would be OK, IMHO.

[PhilusEstilius]

I just noticed you need to fit some tie strings onto it for when you come to fit a metal seal box to it. just a thought !!

[Robert]

As far as I know, the tiestring was wrapped around once, crossed, then wrapped around the opposite ends and sealed with the wax in the sealbox. So no string is attached to the writing tablet at all. You wrap it like you would tie a box shut, only instead of a knot the sealbox is used.

[Epictetus]

Very nice! In the second photo, I really liked the juxtaposition of the wax tablet and the computer screen.

[Doc]

I too am making a wax tablet and plan on using linseed oil. Robert the comment on the linseed oil is interesting since I made a sample using pine and the linseed oil within a day dried nicely. I did not have a problem with it being sticky. Besides, if applied evenly and not super saturating the wood, there is no excess that would dry on a surface making it sticky. At least that is what I have found out.


Matt, as far as the wood is concerned, the one in the British museum is made from fir and I believe that when speaking to Matt Lukes, he too has an article describing that the wood is actually silver fir which is what I am using.

Were there any inscriptions found on the front or back of these tablets like the name of the person, legion, Cohort ext. or something to this effect? Any photos of the originals would be appreciated.

I will post my tablet here when I finish it shortly.