Air drying roughed out bowls

[Prashun Patel]

I'm in the process of rough turning a bunch of green bowl blanks. I'm planning to Anchorseal them and let them air dry.

What's the rule of thumb for how long you let them dry? Do you do a weight test every few weeks?

[Bernie Weishapl]

I use anchorseal after watching and listening to Mike Mahoney. I generally weigh them every 3 weeks to a month. I have enough roughed out blanks that I don't worry about weighing them any more. I had some maple I kept a eye on and it seemed around 8 to 9 months it was dry. I deep them on or near the floor, with not much air flow and cool.

[Sean Hughto]

It depends upon how wet they are when you start. There's green and then there's GREEEEN - like a steady spray of water coming off the rough as you turn it, for example. Then there's the question of how thick the rough is. On a small bowl that you turn to 3/4" rough, the drying time will be much faster than on a big blank you had to leave at 2". Then there's species - typic ally the more dense the wood, the slower it dries in my experience. Then there's the question of whether you need the thing bone dry before re-turning. If you can bear something 1/8th of an inch out of round, 85% dry might well be enough. If I were generalizing, I'd say that for medium to large bowls that you coat completely with Anchorseal, three months is a good minimum.

[Ken Hill]

Add to this when the tree/blank was cut. Wood will be at differing levels of moisture throughout the year.