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Just thought I'd share, now, about 1 week later, how the "scraped" gourds are doing, and how well they turned out compared to the heavily-molded gourds I tried to scrape/clean at the same sitting...
The first image shows four frames, with the first ones illustrating how I do it (using backedge of kitchen "butter knife"); you can easily see the "skin" as it scrapes off in peels and hunks. Then, I took a pic of the finished gourd, just after scraping. Finally, a new pic of the same gourd, but days later -- a happy, golden, well-dried and ready for crafting piece!
Not every "scraped" gourd will react and dry/cure this speedily, however. I'm sure it all depends on the stage it's at (just before mold "takes over" is when I like to do it), the size, where the gourd is residing during the curing phase (mine are all inside now, in cooler, darker areas of the house), etc.
I can say, however, that I have only lost ONE gourd (well, besides one I soaked too long) after "scraping", and THAT specimen was ALREADY an "iffy", with some oozing going on near a softer neck... and with that one, I was HOPING my scraping would help to SAVE it. Four days later, the oozing was worse, the stink was incredible (ever get so busy you forget a lidded pan of mac n cheese on the stovetop, and lift the lid a day or two later? yep, that's it...), and that gourd is back out on the porch again, to live with whatever fate has in store for it...
jipsi
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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