Preventing stored lumber end splitting

[Alex Horvath]

Hi all,

I recently went through some of my lumber stored in the garage and I noticed that a fair number of pieces, soft and hardwood, has end splits. The pieces that still have the end treatment from the lumberyard do not have splits so that treatment seems to work.

Although I have been in teh woodworking game quite a while I don't know what that end treatment is and what it's called.

I have done quite a few outdoor projects in stain grade redwood and I coat exposed end grain with Titebond III (before applying a transparant stain or it won't stick) and it really extends the life of the wood. I have some trellises with 3/4" square ends that show no splitting or water damage after 5 years. However, putting glue on stored stock is not ideal.

[Prashun Patel]

Turners have a lot of insight about this.

Sealing with wax is the usual way. Anchorseal is such a commercial product.
People do report using thinned glue, or paint in a pinch.

[Rod Sheridan]

I use the Lee Valley end sealer, available in a 1 litre can.

It looks like latex paint, however when it dries it resembles a wax coating of some sort.

I use it on green wood stored for turning and green freshly sawn boards prior to air drying them.

Regards, Rod.

[Lee Schierer]

I can't offer any suggestions on sealing ends, but something seems amiss if your wood is splitting. If this is air dried wood, then it is likely it wasn't completely dry when you brought it into your shop. I have boards I've had in my shop for a few weeks to many years without ends splitting. However, all the wood was kiln dried and stays at about 7-8% MC in my shop.

[Alex Horvath]

I can't offer any suggestions on sealing ends, but something seems amiss if your wood is splitting. If this is air dried wood, then it is likely it wasn't completely dry when you brought it into your shop. I have boards I've had in my shop for a few weeks to many years without ends splitting. However, all the wood was kiln dried and stays at about 7-8% MC in my shop.

I thought about this and it's probably because the garage environment. When it rains hard the slab can partially flood which does not help matters (I have since fixed this).
I have a humidity meter in my house and it varies between 45% - 70% (we rarely run any air conditioning or heating) so I suspect it's an even wider variation in the garage. I did a few MC spot checks and it's currently about 10% MC.

BTW, the FDA document, "Air Drying of Lumber" FPL-GTR-117, is an excellent resource although my situation is different since the wood was already dry when stored. That makes me think that there's too much variation in MC caused by environmental conditions.