Incising as an Aid for the Preservative Treatment of Wood - A Review

Incising is preferred prior to preservative treatment of refractory or difficult-to-treat species. Incising of wood reduces check development, facilitates drying of refractory species, and improves the penetration and retention of preservatives. Thus, it reduces the susceptibility of wood to biological degrading agents, extends the service life, and ensures structural soundness of wood. In spite of these benefits, high density needle/ knife incising significantly reduces wood strength properties. But recently developed laser (CO2 laser) incising of wood has limited impact on the strength reduction of wood. Laser incising also ensures deeper penetration of preservatives than needle/knife incising as cell lumens are free from clogging by dust. Bioincising also offers a good potential for improving the permeability of preservative in wood by making holes in cell wall. Extensive research is recommended on laser incising and bioincising of wood to improve the technical suitability for preservatve treatment. In this paper method of incising, incising density and both the beneficial and detrimental effects of needle/ knife incising, laser incising and bioincising for preservative treatment of wood based on related patents are reviewed.