Any idea how to treat wood prior to ageing

[Bob Graham]

Apologies if this has be covered previously.
Out walking this morning and I heard the sound of a chainsaw. Having located it I found a couple of guys trimming a Silver Birch and asked them if I could have some of the branches for woodturning - they put some aside for me.

Having cut the branches into what I consider usable sizes I find that already cracks or splits are appearing in the centre of the stock. I'm spraying the ends with a varnish lacquer from Lidl. Is this the correct way to go or am I completely wrong. I'm new to all this.

Thanks, Bob

 

[Fire_frogs]

I seal each cut end with wax. This allows the moisture to leave the timber at such a rate as to not cause major cracks. I've found the thing with freshly cut wood is that the amount of moisture that is lost straight away will alway cause a little cracking. I cut the wood over sized, then seal, allow it to dry out and stabilise and then I cut off the ends that have any checking on. I've also just built a woodfired kiln this summer so will let you know how that works.

 

[Bob Graham]

Cheers, thanks for the tip.

 

[Robbo3]

There is a saying that you keep your wood as long as you can for as long as you can thus if it starts splitting the longer lengths don't produce so much waste.
I've started using 100mm cling film type pallet wrap instead of paint for sealing. Much easier than putting plastic bags over the ends .... &, being lazy & not renewing the wrap it's introducing some spalting presumably because the moisture cant evaporate.

 

[Beau]

A log in the round more often than not will split regardless of how you treat it.

I am poor at explaining these things but found a little article that should help https://wunderwoods.wordpress.com/2011/ ... shrinkage/

Smaller the diameter the better chance you have of a defying the rules and sealing the ends up's your chances.

 

[Bob Graham]

Bookmarked, thank you.

 

[onetruth]

My method (for bowl blanks) is to cut it about 1.5x as long as it is wide, and cut it length ways so I remove all the pith from both "halves". If I've got time I paint the ends in candle wax. This probably isn't the best method, but most of it survives with only a little checking, and it's very rare for it to split so deep as to mean I end up losing any width once I trim it down. Seems to work with thick pieces as well as thin. I don't store it particularly carefully.

Your lidl lacquer is probably just as good as wax, but I really like the sound of the cling-film suggestion above - will try that when my pan of wax is used up!

 

[Dalboy]

When I get logs home the first thing i do is slap on left over emulsion paint and cover with news paper this stops the woods that are very prone to splitting from going to far. Then when I have time cut into rounds and seal the outside with either the emulsion or waterdown pva. Or I may if I feel like it rough turn and again seal with watered down PVA. All these are then stored in stick.
The advantage of rough turning means that they are ready much quicker.
By using the methods above I have a good success rate. The ones which many have problems with are many of the fruit woods as it does not matter how you prepare these they will probably split.

 

[Bob Graham]

Thanks for that Dalboy. The birch that I got yesterday has a maximum diameter of 100mm or 4" whichever system you use so most if not all will be for spindle work but I will heed your advice.

 

[Dalboy]

Some of it can be turned wet which makes it easier to turn If you have some under 3" then make some thin stemmed goblets start by turning the goblet bowl first and do it as thin as you feel comfortable then finish this the heat from sanding will dry the thin area and you can apply a finish. Support that with the tailstock and work on the stem working down to the foot sanding as you go again because you have made the bits quite thin this will aid drying. The only thing that you need to do is sand at a faster speed than what you would normally to aid in producing the little extra heat to dry it. Don't worry if it warps a little once complete as it will add to it.