Bowl blank storage?

[Neil Bosdet]

I'm new to turning. I've been fortunate to acquire several large black walnut rounds and 1/2 rounds. Most are over 100 lbs each I believe. The question and problem I have is I don't have them yet. They are at my friends home (he picked them up for me. Nice friend) in Portland. I'm a day away on Vancouver island. I will pick them up in about a month. For the time being, I can have him leave out in the rain or cover them up outside. Not many other choices for me since he's doing me this favour. Which would be best? And what should I do with them when I finally get them home as far as storage?

Thanks,

Neil

[Steve Schlumpf]

Neil - congrats on getting some Black Walnut - should be beautiful wood to turn!

What to do? From my viewpoint, you are most likely going to have a problem with the wood checking. That starts to happen almost as soon as it is cut and the wood starts drying out. Normally, you want to either rough turn the wood ASAP or seal it with anchorseal to prevent checking from starting. In your case, checks may have already started and by waiting a month... pretty sure they will have started to crack.

Being 100 pounds log sections, you may still have enough wood to work with. Just cut off a couple of inches from the each end of the log to remove checked wood and then - either seal with anchorseal or place the wood within a plastic garbage bag to prevent any additional loss of moisture. Storage can be inside or outside but make sure they are not placed in direct sunlight as that will speed up the moisture loss.

[Dan Forman]

I would offer to buy your friend a tarp big enough to cover the wood, and weight it down so the wind doesn't blow it away. If the weather stays damp, it might do ok until you can get to it. For that long a time, it's still a crap shoot, but tarps are cheap and walnut can be hard to find.

Dan