# seasoning blanks



## d.frana (Dec 15, 2010)

I just got some nice cherry log sections and I'd like to make some bowls. In the past I would just seal the ends with wood glue and store them for several years. But now I've finally got a nice lathe and the wood is piling up. Should I saw them lengthwise and store them that way or cut them round on my band saw or just rough turn them green for storage?


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## Big Mack (Jan 23, 2011)

I am still new to turning but, I cut my logs to three feet sections,seal ends,store.Then when I need a piece,I cut off what I need,reseal.I am sure you will get more info than just mine;Mack.


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## woodtick greg (Sep 12, 2011)

if you rough turn them green and put them in a paper bag with the wet shavings they will dry quicker than in log form. the reason to place in a bag with the shavings is so the rough turned blank does'nt dry to fast. cherry is prone to checking. rough turn bowls at least 10% thickness, example is 10" bowl diameter is 1" wall thickness. that way when bowl is dry and warped their will be enough material to re turn to final shape.if you do dry some in log form saw them in half lenghtways and remove the pith as that will reduce checking. seal the ends with wax or anchorseal.


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## NCPaladin (Aug 7, 2010)

Jmho….
For smaller diameter logs I leave them 4-6’ (whatever I can handle by myself easily) and seal the ends with anchorseal
These are usually 10” diameter or less. I have kept them for max a year but I am not sure about several years. This is like Mack does. Keep an eye on them to make sure they do not start getting punky.

For larger I cut them to length of diameter + four inches or so. This will allow the wood to crack some and still have a solid blank.
For medium size (10-16) I make one cut down the center to take out the pith. For larger I take out the center 3” normally which yields the side blanks and two pieces of quartersawn.
Of course sealing the end grain in all cases.

I would not cut them round on the band saw and then store them, but that is just me. If you cut them round and they do crack (and they probably will at least a little) then you are losing the blanks somewhat. I know stores sell them cut round but they are normally dipped in thick wax to seal completely.

You can rough turn them but you are then restricted to a style. I only rough turn enough to have a stash. I also have rived out some into 3-4” squares for boxes, tool handles, anything turned end grain. I coat the end grain the same and drop them into a 5 gallon bucket. Most are about 2’ long and after a year fairly dry when I need one.


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## don716 (Mar 1, 2008)

Cherry is really prone to cracking. I cut the pith out and seal the ends but they sometimes still crack. I add 2-3 coats of anchorseal but it doesn't always work with cherry. They are cut sealed and stored in my shop but cracking still goes on. I guess the best thing to do is make roughed out bowls as quick as you can and bag them with shavings with the endgrain sealed. That seems to work fine.
Donny


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## hughie (Mar 22, 2008)

I rough turn most if not all of my green wood. Green wood is great to turn. Then i coat the outside with BLO and store several at a time in cardboard boxes, check weekly in the beginning for check etc filling these with CA and usually I can finish turn the rough outs 4-6months


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## Jonnie B (Feb 19, 2015)

*seasoning timber for turning*

I have just come into some logs from a friend Lime (Linden tree) about 12" dia 4-6" long have been left in the open for some while i understand , i have de-barked most of it falling off. not wanting it to split i have coated all surfaces with BAUFIX gel. A Breathable Wood finish ,hoping this will hold back the rapid loss of water and help to stop cracking , 
I await to see the results in time ,has anyone any comments regarding this


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## Bill Boehme (Feb 9, 2014)

Jonnie B said:


> I have just come into some logs from a friend Lime (Linden tree) about 12" dia 4-6" long have been left in the open for some while i understand , i have de-barked most of it falling off. not wanting it to split i have coated all surfaces with BAUFIX gel. A Breathable Wood finish ,hoping this will hold back the rapid loss of water and help to stop cracking ,
> I await to see the results in time ,has anyone any comments regarding this


I looked the product up on the Internet and it doesn't appear to be the right product for sealing end geain to slow down the drying process. Over here, we use Anchorseal, but my search didn't find anything comparable in the UK.

It looks like the wood that you found has been on the ground for a long time. If it hasn't split then you probably don't need to do anything to it while it remains in log form. I suggest that you rough turn it and then wrap it in several layers of newspaper. Tape the newspaper to keep the roughed piece tightly wrapped. This will usually slow the rate of drying sufficiently to prevent cracking or severe warping.


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## hwebb99 (Nov 27, 2012)

I store them in log form until I am ready to turn. You need to get them off the ground, old pallets work well for this. If your logs have been cut for a long time it is usually a waste of time to seal them.


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## Jonnie B (Feb 19, 2015)

*seasoning turning logs*

Thanks for your help Lads 
, Woodturning not such a big thing in U.K. I usually use a P.V.A. adhesive to seal my logs , (that's what they seem to use over here in U.K.) But i have not found it very successfull. my thoughts were that a microporus finish would slow the loss of sap down and stop cracking while still allowing some evaporation , I will see what happens with some of the logs,and take your advise on the others 
Kind Regards 
Keep Turning 
Jonnie B


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## Jerry Maske (Dec 29, 2013)

In his books, Richard Raffin usually includes one paragraph about drying wood that says it all. I won't quote, but I will paraphrase.

Leave the logs in as long a length as you get them, but put them on slats so air circulates and keep them out of the rain/snow. Seal the ends with Anchor Seal or some latex paint (I use the "Oops" from Home Depot). Cut to bowl length and split out the pith. Shape and rough turn at 1:10, where the walls and bottom are 1/10 the diameter, but the important part is to get them uniform. Toss them in a pile until they are dry. 

In one place he says to use Anchor Seal on the rough turned bowl if it's got remarkable grain or heavy burl designs just to be safe. I've been using his methods for some time now and have had great luck with everything except heavily burled Oak.


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## 9thousandfeet (Dec 28, 2014)

Since there are so many ingenious woodturners in the world, and since we tend to be an opinionated bunch anyway, just about everything you can imagine in the way of drying strategies has already been tried, somewhere, by somebody. And strategies which work just fine with some wood species in a humid place, like the Texas Gulf Coast where I used to live, don't work worth a damn with different species in the hyper-dry climate in the mountains where I live now. And vice versa.

Here's what I do, which is a collection of strategies I've stolen fair and square from other people over the years; 
If I'm going to turn a piece all the way to being finished while still green, I cut that piece of wood so that it's ready for the lathe and bag it until I can get to it. My green-turned work is rarely more than one-eighth of an inch thick, so they dry fast and don't usually check at all without any special techniques. I just make sure they're not in a draft.

For everything else, if I have log sections waiting to be processed, which is usually in the Winter for me, I store them as wet as possible (buried in a snowbank, usually, or under a tarp if the weather is dry) until I can get to them.
I make them a priority and get to them as fast as I can, at which time I buck the logs to a length about equal to the diameter, split them through the pith, trim as necessary for the lathe, then rough turn them into bowls for drying. 

I turn them so the rim is about 10% of the diameter in thickness. I don't obsess about this dimension though and just eyeball it. I almost always turn them so the wall thickness gradually diminishes just a little toward the bottom of the bowl (if the rim is 1", the wall down by the foot might be 3/4", something like that), an idea I stole from Al Stirt which has given me very good results. I have no idea who he stole it from.

I then paint the top of the rim and the outside of the bowl with Anchorseal and park them somewhere out of any drafts for a year or so. I've found that leaving the inside of the bowl unsealed speeds the drying a little, but without increasing the losses to checking. However, if there is some unusual figure in the wood which is likely to increase the instability while drying, I'll seal the inside too as a precaution.

I use a magic marker to write the month and year, and the wood species, on the blank before storing it. I do this because I've found it's real easy to lose track of what's what.


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Whenever I get a fresh cut log, I try and cut it up into usable blank sizes almost immediately. I start by making two cuts lengthwise to get rid of the pith. Then I cut bowl blanks in various sizes. Lastly I will cut spindle type blanks for peppermills,vases, etc. once they are cut I seal all the end grain with anchor seal. I stack them in my shop with stickers in between. They seem to be less prone to cracking this way. Here's a stack of cherry blanks I cut and sealed a little over a year ago, in the background, behind the lathe.
Mike Hawkins


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## Bill Boehme (Feb 9, 2014)

When I buy wood, which I often do at SWAT, it will be in round or square waxed blocks prepped the way that you do them, Mike. For the wood that I find I generally just wax the ends and leave it in log form. I like to turn the wood while it is still wet.


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## Jonnie B (Feb 19, 2015)

*Your Photo's*

Bill your Photo's are really good , being a pro photographer in my younger days, i must admit i would be proud to have taken these shots.
Having visited Yosemite a few years back in 1994 your shots put mine to shame, Love your Country, have visited many times and motored many thousands of miles from Montana/Palm Springs etc .last time drove down from New York inland and back up the east Coast, from Norfolk
Keep up with the Sawdust making 
John Burton


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## Bill Boehme (Feb 9, 2014)

Jonnie B said:


> Bill your Photo's are really good , being a pro photographer in my younger days, i must admit i would be proud to have taken these shots.
> Having visited Yosemite a few years back in 1994 your shots put mine to shame, Love your Country, have visited many times and motored many thousands of miles from Montana/Palm Springs etc .last time drove down from New York inland and back up the east Coast, from Norfolk
> Keep up with the Sawdust making
> John Burton


Thank you very much for the wonderful compliment, John. I've been told that anybody can take great photos at Yosemite. Whether or not it's true, the majestic scenery does most of the work, leaving me to just point the camera at it.


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## Jonnie B (Feb 19, 2015)

Don't Believe them Bill, they are just envious of your Talent, I still remember what my photographic lecturer said some 60 years ago,( and i still remember it ) " you can buy the best paintbrush in the world, but it won't paint a good picture,its the same with a camera "


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