Tips - Carving End Grain

This is a tip contributed from another reader and sent directly to our office:

There was a person commenting on carving end grain in the Issue No. 19 of WCI. Several years ago in the Silver Dollar City carving seminar, Harold Enlow gave us a suggestion/hint/solution (no pun intended) for this problem. It works good, and I have seen no problem using it on Bass wood. It makes the wood shave off real easy and smooth. Use a small spray bottle of alcohol and water on the end grain and let it soak. Don't drown it. As Harold says, 'depending on how cheap you are depends on how much water you use with the alcohol.' Maybe this will help some.