Blanks....

[VikingAl]

Hi all, been a while since my last post but here's the main reason why.....

I have in my little garage/workshop about 2 Tonnes of logs, Beech, Sycamore, Loads of Oak, Apple & some Ash I think. Most of its been in here since last December, working thru to a month ago ( I occasionally do tree work so swipe the good looking stuff! ) & is splitting horribly, I think it's been heating up a little too much with the warm weather of late.

Anyway, chopsaw, chainsaw, handsaw & bench saw have all been working overtime, got lots of square ish blanks now & I'm trying to get them sealed if you like to slow down the drying process. Am I better off coating it all in a watered down PVA glue mixture, coating with wax (wife's not too keen on her snazzy candles disappearing!), or using silk/gloss paint or such like?. I've coated a few in the PVA mix but I have no idea if it will work. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated as the apple is stunning & I do not want to burn it!!!!!!.

Oh, I think now know I should have sealed the ends of the logs initially but that's what you get being a complete novice!!!. Hence going nuts making blanks!.

 

[Killingtime]

Hi there
Iv had good success with pva. I don't water it down that much probably 70% pva 30% water. I don't know if that's a good thing or not but it seems to work well. The last lot i did i recoated after a few weeks and nothing has budged yet. Iv used recycled wax in the past and I find it flakes off. I think that's due to it being old wax and it's lost some of its goodness or operator error!

Hope that helps
Tom

 

[VikingAl]

Cheers Tom, think ill stick to the PVA then if your having success so far!. Many thanks!.

 

[tekno.mage]

Make sure you get a good thick coat of the PVA on the end grain - and I always coat any other parts of the wood where a branch joined on etc as well as splits can develop from these areas too.

 

[CHJ]

If you are cutting into conventional round blanks then only the peripheral edge needs coating* to make sure you get all the end grain, the faces do not need coating. Take your guidance from the commercial blanks you see on the shelves.

What you are trying to do is even out the speed of evaporation from all surfaces, so that end grain loss is nearer the rate of face grain loss.

If you coat both end grain and face grain on most woods then you have not done that, just inhibited the face grain loss the same as the end grain and are back to square one.

The only time you see total coverage is with such as olive wood or wet burrs where a very thick coating is trying to add years to the drying time to aviod splitting.

*and any knots of course as Kym mentioned.

If you are splitting branches then leave the bark on and seal ends only, likewise round blanks with bark, leave it on.

 

[andersonec]

Sounds like it was left stored in log form which is almost 100 per cent going to split, you have to get rid of the pith which means cutting to within a minimum of 25mm each side of the centre of your log, the central 50mm square from the centre needs to be removed then if you can keep it in the shade and covered it should dry ok, it will still split a year or so aftrer cutting if warmed up too quickly, I have even introduced moisture into the stack for the first few months before now.
Next time cut your logs slightly longer than required, this gives you a chance to remove the split ends, which usually do not go too deep, before use.

Andy

 

[VikingAl]

Thanks fellas, some really good info there that I'd not thought of. I had stored approx 80% of it all in log form which is the main issue but the other 20% I had cut out the heart has done ok but I think I cut out 2 much, most of it is about as thick as saucers!, ah well, think I could salvage some pen blanks so all is not lost!. Once again, cheers guys!.