End Seal for seasoning wood for turning

[SteveBartley]

I’m new to seasoning my own wood. I’m fortunate in being able to access supplies of various green wood, some may have been felled a couple of years but never logged. I’ve come across 2 products, Chestnut End Seal and Osmo End Sealing Wax. Any thoughts on using these or other products you would recommend.

 

[MARK.B.]

Save you pennies for the lecky bill Steve , any old pva glue/paint or wax will do the same job

 

[SteveBartley]

Many thanks. I had Assumed that there was some technical magic in these products, never thought it might be that simple. Definitely need those pennies for the lucky.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've even used half a dozen coats of emulsion - it really doesn't matter.

 

[MARK.B.]

Nope none of that harry potter wizardry involved Steve ,just a case of seal the ends and hope for the best ,the wood gods will decide the outcome

 

[alex robinson]

If you want to use the wood for bowls, you may want to try 2 part turning. Cut rough, seal thoroughly with PVA and leave to dry. It will warp a bit, but you can then turn a second time to finish.

Several benefits of this method. Cracking is much less severe (especially for bits with interesting grain). Far quicker - bowl can be finished in 6 months, whereas a 6"thick plank will take many years to dry. Green wood is much softer and easier to turn for the bulk roughing out. Also less of a storage problem as you get rid of 90% of the waste at the beginning!

What species are you using? Time and likeliness of cracking can vary hugely.

 

[Richard_C]

There is a similar and recent thread running in the woodturning-lathes section below this one. "sealing with wax".

 

[Shan]

If you want to use the wood for bowls, you may want to try 2 part turning. Cut rough, seal thoroughly with PVA and leave to dry. It will warp a bit, but you can then turn a second time to finish.

Several benefits of this method. Cracking is much less severe (especially for bits with interesting grain). Far quicker - bowl can be finished in 6 months, whereas a 6"thick plank will take many years to dry. Green wood is much softer and easier to turn for the bulk roughing out. Also less of a storage problem as you get rid of 90% of the waste at the beginning!

What species are you using? Time and likeliness of cracking can vary hugely.

Alex
That's great advice. So much easier to turn as well. I inherited two large trunks of chestnut from the neighbours and being new to turning I was as pleasedas punch and carved up one and knocked out a few bowls. Unfortunately some have started to warp but wish I had known sooner about rough turning 1st. But some have returned to the lathe others I letting them do their thing.

I'm now giving the blanks a rough turn and then letting them dry out a bit. Just finished one yesterday and will try and attach a photo.

The chestnut bowl is the top left and right middle. The others are different woods but although the photo doesn't show it but my early effort (bigger bowl) has warped but the other one hasn't....yet!
Great advice tho!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Don't forget if you try wet turning the blanks are likely to go oval, so leave enough on the perimeter to get a circles out of.them. I have a large sycamore bowl that wasn't dry when someone else turned it - I thought to stick it on the lathe to re turn it - it was quite chunky - but I couldn't even get a 1mm rim out of it, it was so elliptical.

 

[Robbo3]

Standard reply for a rough turned bowl is that the thickness should be approx 10% of the diameter. Thus a 250mm bowl should be 25mm.
Another tip is to leave the centre mark in place to make remounting & trueing up the tenon (or recess) much easier.