Abstract
Conservation of historic timber structures is of great importance for cultural inheritance and community identity promotion. However, most of the current methods available for ancient architecture protection sig-nificantly affect their original appearance and aesthetic value and finding wood elements that are similar to the ones in existing historic timber structures is not easy. Here we report a simple and effective method to archaize wood, Castanopsis sclerophylla, by ferric chloride (FeCl3) treatment without significantly affecting its mechanical properties and durability. The lightness and the color indexes of treated wood are similar to the ancient wood sample. The mechanical properties of FeCl3 treated wood are not statistically different from the control. Our durability testing results indicated that FeCl3 treated wood has good decay resistance against Irpex lacteus and Trametes versicolor with a mass loss of less than 10 %. This study provides a convenient method for the restoration and protection of ancient buildings.