homebrew preservative?

Jeb, I use Anchorseal and buy it direct from them. Before I used it I would get parifin wax, melt it and paint it on the ends of logs. That worked fairly well. If you are turning bowls go ahead and turn the green wood, then let them dry. There are all kinds of methods of drying the bowls. You can do a search for bowl drying. I am using the denatured alcohol method by Dave Smith with success. I have also used Anchorseal to coat bowls made from green wood. I put them away to dry for a few months.

Jeb,

I've been scavenging wood too, and I used some Anchorseal and it is great stuff. But I ran out, and I used some leftover exterior Latex paint. (Latex forms a sort of a skin when it dries) It seems to work pretty well too.

Things I have learned the hard way.

The ends are going to crack, no matter what. Just cut them away when you are ready to turn. If you cut the log in half lengthwise through the pith, it will check less. If you chainsaw it, you have a flat surface you can screw to a face plate. If you split it, like I did some, you have a non flat surface that you have to do a lot of planing on before you can mount it.

Don't wait for it to get dry before turning it. Turning wet wood is a treat. (I haven't had any that was so green it splattered, but on some of it I the shavings felt damp. I have some 12 in logs that were cut 6 years ago, and they STILL are damp. Not as damp as the ones I cut last year, tho.

I rough turn the bowl green, and hollow it out. I leave the wall thickness about 10% of the diameter. Then I just put it on the shelf. No wrap, no alcohol, just shelf it. I bought a food scale, and I weigh it about once a week. When I have two weeks with no weight loss, I figure it is ready to turn. It has warped enuf so that you have to redo the outside and the inside again.

I still end up with some checks (cracks). I figure I'm turning for practice, not beauty. If the crack makes the bowl unsound, I use superglue to heal it. If it is just an appearance thing, I fill it by slurry sanding, and that's as good as it gets.

I've used this system on hard maple, butternut, honey locust and ash, and I'm pretty happy with it.

Walt C

I use both melted wax and the liquid, wax-emulsion sealer (Anchorseal, "endgrain sealer", etc.) for slowing the drying of wood.

For the melted wax, I use a shallow electric kitchen fryer (about 12" sq. x 3" deep), obtained from the local thrift store for a couple bucks to melt down candle odds and ends. My wife will buy old taper and pillar candles at yard sales for a dollar or two and I add these as my wax gets used up. (BTW, there's no need to peel labels or worry about the wick as the wax certainly won't stay clean from the bark and such falling into it anyway.) This method is used for all wood that can be easily handled while dipping the ends into the pool of hot wax - and is small enough to fit the fryer. I tried brushing on the melted wax, but it cooled so quickly on the wet wood that the wax just chipped off in sheets. When the wood is dipped, I hold it in the wax for a couple, three, four seconds and then pull it out and allow the excess to drip off. After about 10 minutes of cooling time I dip a second time but just a quick in and out to add a second layer. This is done only to the endgrain and about an inch up the sides. If you encapsulate the wood in wax there will be no drying whatsoever - which could be what you're after if it's a highly reactive wood to drying stresses. (In North America, many fruit trees have this characteristic.)

The wax-emulsion gets used when the wood is too large to dip into the melted wax container. I generally brush the emulsion on with a cheapo

80-cent utility brush. Two coats work better for longer term storage and you'll be surprised at just how far a gallon of the stuff can go. Overall, I've found the hot wax dip to be superior to the brushed emulsion. That could be due to the superior coating in every nook and cranny and wax thickness the dip process yields.

Keep in mind that if the wood is left in log form it's practically inevitable that it'll crack in time - it's just the way the drying forces work on the wood and it's structure. Also, keep the bark on if you want to retain as much moisture in the wood as possible. However, if you check on your stash and see bugs making a condominium out there, peel it off. If you store your wood outdoors, cover loosely with a waterproof tarp or some such covering. If you store inside, keep in a cool location *without* a lot of air movement; the more humid the better.

Dry enough to turn? No such thing. I look at it a different way: is the wood too dry to have an enjoyable turning experience? Dress in your worst clothes, don your face shield and begin turning immediately. The wood is a joy to work when it's wet - much easier cutting and substantially less dulling on the tool edges. Be forewarned though - the spinning wood will spray a stripe of water on you, the lathe, back wall and the ceiling - some folks hang shower curtains to form a little "room" to contain the wet shavings and flung water. Read up on turning green wood as you may need to turn it twice before you end up with what you're after.

PVA glue will do the trick. It's not the best, but certainly better than nothing...

Rule of thumb: 1 year for every 1" dia. + 1 year more. This'll vary but is a fairly reliable means of guesstimating.

Logs crack because the flow of moisture from the interior to the surface is inadequate to keep it near the FSP (fiber saturation point) of ~30%. Since moisture is lost from endgrain ten times faster than from face grain, it is the ends which show first damage. If you watch such things, you'll find that end checks are self-limiting. The sheltered area in the checks and the dry area outside which cuts off capillary draw ultimately combine to maintain the interior at a favorable moisture content.

Does it make a difference how logs are kept? Of course. Loss from two surfaces is more rapid than loss from one. The sideways stack loses moisture faster. The protected surface of a log on end suffers less from end checks than the exposed surface, but seems more prone to radial checks, which are what really destroys a piece for turning.

Roughing makes all things easier. End grain exposure is immense, so the blank dries rapidly, the thinner walls allow for continuous capillary draw, diminishing end check formation, while the geometry of a bowl with no long continuous cross-sections, minimizes overall distortion. It's the way to go. Easier to cut green than cured wood, and far easier to get a bowl to survive than a chunk of wood.

Periodically, I like to remind folks of the resource at

, where chapter three should be required reading for woodturners. Oh yes, if you have wax, a low-sudsing laundry detergent and a big blender, you could make your own emulsion to coat endgrain.

Another take on this drying biz:

polyurethane, shellac, laquer, etc. that are not good enough to use on a project, or that have expired past their shelf life. I mix all these together with some mineral spirits if needed, and have a nice mix of.... stuff.

With an old brush, I slather this stuff on my green finds. Since it is thinner than the wax emulsions, it has some penetration and can dry rapidly. If that is the case I slather on another coat. You would be surprised how well this stuff works. I started doing this with quart of plain, left over poly that a buddy of mine gave me and have since changed it to a shelf cleaning project throwing everything that mixes or doesn't together so I will have some ready when I get some wood.

Like Owen, I have found that the best way is to only do about an inch or so up the ends. I found this out the hard way when I bought a 2X2 stick of Cocobolo a few years ago at a woodworking show. His deal was that his wood was perfectly protected since it was dipped in a vat of wax. Great, right?

I figured that the wood I was looking at was in the jungle six or so months ago, so it had six months of drying, then another 6 months until I got around to turning Christmas ornaments. So it was "off the tree" for a year, drying with the dealer and in my protected garage.

Every ornament I turned from that piece cracked after being out in the air for about 10 days. My own experiments revealed that it was the drying/preservation technique, not the wood as I was able to duplicate the results.

So get the ends, sticker it up to get some good air flow, and keep your cut and treated wood pile out of direct sunlight after you have finished. To cut the immediate air flow down and help with the face checking, I also put a tarp over the first couple of courses, but leave room for ventilation around the bottom.

I have mine set up on treated sills as direct contact with the ground in South Texas means instant termites and borers. If I know I will not get to this pile for a few months, at this time I also spray insecticide on the wood so it won't be too attractive to the wood workers of the insect world.

Robert

Hi Jeb, Doesn't answer your question, but since wood is plentiful here, I can be both lazy and thrifty by staying out of Mother Nature's way in her efforts to help me.

I often just wait for short logs to split and dry or spalt. Many will have a single very deep crack straight along the length of a short log that often can be easily wedged into fairly equal halves. The big crack seems to have 'used up' the cracking forces and the two splits remain stable. The two splits can be further rived for spindles (or firewood) or left intact for cross grain work. After cleaning up the ends by cutting to size the rough surfaces are easily prepared for holding with spur centers or pin or single screw chucks.

For Norfolk Island Pine I remove the limb stubs and bark with a hatchet, then rough to cylinders. Then slather any 50-50 liquid dish detergent liberally over the entire roughed blank. The clean blanks dry and remain stable and are easily stored. Might not work for other timbers or other turners or in other galaxies, but it works for me.

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

Arch:

Are you saying that you just put the LDD on the blank and let it dry? No dipping, re-coating, etc? Do you store your blanks inside your shop/garage/shed or do you leave them outside in the elements? Do the boring critters bother your wood with the soap on it?

Always interested in something new...

Robert

Robert, I don't dip or recoat the blanks with LDD, just store them in an open floored shed. No critters in the stored blanks, but lots of round worms beneath the bark when it is removed. My field lizards sure enjoy them. Remember, I'm referring to whole NIP logs only, mostly turned end grain with no problems of knots fallig out.

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

Thanks Arch.

Seems like if it worked well on NIP, then it should work well on other softer woods. And at the price of that stuff, I could literally put it in a 5 gal bucket and just dunk it and put it on the saw horse to dry.

I will try that out on my next pieces of super green ash coming my way. It would be a lot less messy and safer than my "witches brew" of odds and ends.

Robert