I get a lot of questions about what makes for good driftwood, and what should be done to prepare it before turning it into a mirror, coatrack or art frame. So here is my quick guide for those that are curious. When scoping out a piece of driftwood, look for the following. If it has soft spots, it is not going to provide any support or strength to what you are trying to make so skip it. If there are any glaring defects that seem insurmountable, again I say skip it unless the section with a big crack or injury can be isolated and removed completely.

As for what steps you should take before you start your work on crafting the driftwood, there are multiple different methods that include boiling, heating and chemically disinfecting. These of course take place after you have doen your visual inspection and wiped off stuff like sand, dirt and debris. All of the cleaning procedures have their downside in my opinion, boiling can negatively impact the wood itself (remember that old commercial- water on wood ah ah no good), heating can actually lead to burning, and chemical is well chemically and not an organic process. Plus, boiling and chemically treating require that you place the driftwood into a container, and this is impractical with bigger pieces.

Still, it needs to be done in order to eliminate molds, parasites and fungi that may or may not be visible. I will leave the choice to you to determine which of them is the best of the bunch.