Seasoning advice sought

Salt and a little lime juice?

I usually cut as many blanks out as I can while the woods green.. that's when you want to turn it, IMO...

Best advice that I could give is to go here:

Darrell's da man!

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Hello John,

I normally cut the wood to about 2" longer than it is wide and split it down the middle to remove the pith, then seal the ends. If I have time, I'll rough turn all of the wet wood with about a 10 percent wall thickness of the diameter. Then put it on the shelf to dry for a few months. You can seal the end grain portion of the rough turned bowl with end grain sealer, put it into a paper bag, or simply put it on the shelf. If you stack them, put the bowls top down with stickers between to allow air to flow to all surfaces. Make this as cool of a place as possible, not sunlight on them. When they stop losing weight, final turn them and finish them.

Welcome to the newsgroup and good luck with your turning.

Fred Holder

Cut them lengthwise with a chainsaw or band saw ASAP making sure that you cut out the very center. Sealing the faces won't hurt but is not as necessary. Cutting out the pith/center and sealing the ends is. If you leave them whole they will crack from then ends for sure.

This link shows is a photo of Bill Lancaster ripping logs for bowl blanks. You can see the blanks in the upper left of the photo:

If you can swing it get a copy of Bill Grumbines first video on turning a bowl. He is methodical on taking you through the process. Here is the link:

This process is also outlined at the a website called Around The Woods. The link is below. Scroll down the page and their is a short video to watch.

If you leave the logs whole and let them dry then the likelihood that they will split is much greater. Another possibility is to learn to rough them out as a thick bowl first, seal them and then let them dry. Or you can go ahead and turn the bowls thin right away. Good luck, Ted

Split them, but don't worry about the face. You split them to avoid the log splitting where you DON"T want it to split. Many of us rough turn green to about 1-inch of wall thickness, let dry, then re-turn to final

John, You'll be waiting years if you are trying to season the wood in whole form. I usually turn the wood while it is green. It turns really nice while green, big long shavings flying off over your shoulder. You can then allocate some part of your shop as a drying area or build yourself a small kiln. Then, depending upon how you decide to dry things, and who you ask, you might be waiting anywhere from 3 months to 1 year for the bowl blank to become dry. Some turn the green wood to a finished form and thickness. Their bowls aren't perfectly round when they dry but they are still wooden bowls and they sell several of them. As Mac pointed you to, Darrell's website is a wonderful source of information. The fellows (and ladies) here are also a great source and, whether they'd admit it or not, they are waiting for people to ask a question so they can help. The arguements on this db aren't as heated and nasty as on others I've been on, no one gets really mean. Everyone presents their information and disagrees, but keeps it social in nature. Feel free to post and ask questions.

Welcome to the addiction. JD (Kentucky)

Hi John,

Great advice by all. You definately want to turn the ash while green. Very nice turning wood while green. Very very hard once dried. Btw, great score on the logs. It's also required that you share such a score with everyone here on the rec! I'll be waiting for the delivery of mine.Welcome and remember to have fun.

Dan

Hi all, thanks for the good advice. What a friendly helpful ng this is. Regards John