Gloves for Wet Oak Wood

[Thomas Canfield]

I learned today to use a pair of nitril gloves when turning wet wood. I had roughed out a large Live Oak and a large Water Oak earlier and the stains on my hands from the tannic acid was bad. I still have the stains, but turned another Live Oak green bowl today with gloves and did not add to the stains. Maybe in a week the stains in the cracks and wrinkles from earlier will be gone. I still have 3 more large blanks to rough out. The wet oak is really bad about staining the lathe ways and turning everything black. Wet shavings scattered around the shop have stained table saw and jointer cast iron also. I hope the bowls next year will be worth the effort. The 3 rough bowls so far are 17 to 18" OD and about 8 to 10" high with 2" wall and weigh 36 to 38# each.

The gloves actually helped with the grip also. I may use them more in future.

[Larry Marley]

Lemon Juice will remove the stains. Always have some standing by.
Also a great way to find any small cuts you may have as well!!!

[Richard Madison]

Thomas, Many of us would be interested to learn of your drying procedure for wet oak rough-outs.

[Frank Van Atta]

Lemon Juice will remove the stains. Always have some standing by.Also a great way to find any small cuts you may have as well!!!

Oh, yeah! My greatest joy . . .

[Thomas Canfield]

With the different cuts, splinters, cracks, and scrapes usually on my hands I am going to wear out these stains and use the gloves in future.

My drying method is to cover end grains inside and out, wrap with newspaper, and let them sit in shop for a long time. I have done some Sweet Gum and Bradford Pear of about that size and had good luck. The shop is heated/cooled and relative humidity stays low. I try to stack the bowls and use some wood strips to prevent full contact between stacked bowls. Hopefully I can tell you more next year.