The other day a friend gave me some plum logs. He said they were from a plum tree that had been down for a while (longer than 6 months). The logs were fairly thin, no bigger than 4" diameter. I was able to cut some pen blanks from them, though. What I need to know is how long I should wait before turning them. Can anyone give me some advice on this? Thanks,
Tom H.
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Digger
The basic answer is to say ... "Until they reach equilibrium moisture content (EMC) with the surrounding environment".
In essence, they need to quit loosing (water) weight. This can be measured by just weighing them with a scale. When they stop loosing weight, they're dry (not accounting for swings in ambient humidity).
You can just put them away in a cool, dry, stagnant air place (and perhaps seal the ends with wax or paint or whatever) for another 6 months - 1 year and they'll probably be good enough. You could also put them into a kiln (as little as a shoebox with a lightbulb and some vent flaps could even be used) for a week or two and they'll be done. Or, with such small pieces and an impatient attitude (such as myself), you could just microwave them on the lowest setting for about 2 minutes and let cool. Do that until the wood doesn't feel cold to the touch (or to be more precise you could weigh it each time as discussed above) and you're done in an hour at most.
Lots of ways to achieve what you want,
- Andrew
I had some simlar plum. turned a bunch oof small NE bowls, and gave my scraps to a friend who turns pens and bottle stoppers. He trimmed them out and dipped the ends in paraffin. I have a pen he made a couple weeks later as a thank you and it''s fine.
Beware that the delicate purple and green line you may see fades easily in light.
Jim
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