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Wet wood useage??

Yesterday I got some live Cherry and Apple woods. The pieces aren't huge but should make some nice bowls. I've read numerous accounts of how to handle it but haven't reached a conclusion as to how best to go. I'm sure we have people in the group who have the answers with far more experience.

I turned the outside of a piece of cherry yesterday and now it's in a plastic bag. One thing about wet wood...no dust and boy do the curls come off it nice once the bark is gone :O)

1) I have to store most of it until it's time to use it. So, starting with piece #1 - Am I better off turning a piece wet, sealing and storing it until it's dry?? Saying this - How long to store, what to seal it with and how to store it. Should it go in a plastic bag, then in a box??

2) Am I better off waiting for it to dry until turning?? (Seal ends and store somewhere??)

Al this might be mundane to a lot of you. I did two levels of woodturning courses but we never did talka bout stoing wood or preparing wood for storage. That would have been a good topic at a class!!

Keith P

Reply to
Keith
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There are many, many methods. All of them work for some people, and for some definition of work....

Generally better to at least rough the bowls green. If you can deal with the idea that the result may not be perfectly round (or may be quite oval) you can also finish turn green, and then fix the foot once it's dry. If rough turing, leave an inch or so of wall thickness so that you can get a round result when remounting the dried, oval, roughed bowl.

Apple is very pretty and also very prone to cracking. Good luck with it and expect some losses. Cherry is usually less trouble.

Plastic-bagging may be a bit too much - most places you'll mold the wood with a plastic bag and long-term storage (might not be true in some very dry areas.)

Paper bags (fold the top over) and paper bags full of shavings are two approaches. Buried in shavings without a bag is another. Boiling the roughed out bowls, microwaving the roughed out bowls (have a shop microwave or a REALLY tolerant spouse) soaking the roughed out bowls in liquid dish detergent solution... all things that work for some people.

Reply to
Ecnerwal

The important part of the above is the last sentence. The most reliable, for me, is to put the blank in a paper bag and weight it every month or so on a postal scale. When it quits losing weight, its ready to complete.

I have recently run two pieces through the microwave (three or four passes for 7:45mon on defrost) one worked really great, the other so so.

Liquid dish detergent I had absolutelt no success with. Haven't boiled anything, so cannot speak to that. However, I THINK boiling is more successful on some woods than others.

Deb

Reply to
Dr. Deb

Apple is going to move and twist like crazy. I turn it very thin when wet and let it find its own shape.

I've never turned green cherry, you just don't find it this far north.

Remember... If it holds water, it's a bowl. If not, it's art.

Reply to
Dave Balderstone

Great comment :O) !!!

I knew this was the place for a solution.

Keith

Reply to
Keith

They'll never dry in a plastic bag. A paper grocery bag is the better option.

Turn them over size, then coat the endgrain with Anchorseal. Often I'll put a small stick perpendicular to the grain from edge to edge. Helps it to not move so much as it dries. Then stick it in the aforementioned paper bag.

Yup. I turn them, then set them aside for 6 months to a year. Usually good and dry by then. Rough turn some every month, and you'll always have something dry to turn (after the initial waiting period of course.) Be sure to put the date on them w/a marker so you know how long they've been curing.

It kind of varies with climate. Wood in Arizona is going to dry a lot faster than the wood in the rainforest I live in. It's a good question to ask of the instructor, but isn't one that has a definite answer. That includes the answers you get here too, of course...

...Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Miller

Not mine, but I can't remember where I read it first to attribute it properly.

Reply to
Dave Balderstone

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