Anchorseal Penetration

[Edward Weingarden]

I completely cover my hollow forms with anchorseal after the first turning. I recently did the second turning on a maple vase. When I finished getting it back to round and sanded it, there were areas of discoloration running down from some of the grain lines. I probably took off at least an eighth of an inch when turning it back to round. Could it be the anchorseal? Anyone have any idea how deep anchorseal penetrates into the wood? Thanks.

[John K Jordan]

I've never tried to measure it but I think the penetration is very shallow. I have had some discoloration on light wood. I think it was from the Anchorseal holding moisture in the wood allowing some type of fungus to grow and discolor the wood. I may not have had enough air circulation or maybe I put the Anchorseal on when the wood was too wet. This discoloration only happened rarely and I use Anchorseal on the ends of every green wood blank I cut.

Maybe covering the form completely with anchorseal was too much and another method would work better, bagging, sawdust?

Hey, I saw the other John Jordan dry out the wood on one of his hollow forms after turning - he put an air compressor nozzle into the opening, sealed around the opening with his fingers, and pumped air into the inside Water came bubbling out of the pores of the wood! Maybe this would work after your first turning if the wall was not too thick.

JKJ

[Edward Weingarden]

Thanks John. The technique of covering completely with anchorseal is a method I picked up from Steve Sinner when he demo'ed his technique at Totally Turning. I have turned a couple of other HFs using this approach without a problem so maybe this was an oddball.

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

Edward did you cover the inside with anchorseal? Steve Sinner covers the outside only on his green turnings, not the insides.

[Edward Weingarden]

Outside only Joe.

[Jamie Straw]

I've never tried to measure it but I think the penetration is very shallow. I have had some discoloration on light wood. I think it was from the Anchorseal holding moisture in the wood allowing some type of fungus to grow and discolor the wood. I may not have had enough air circulation or maybe I put the Anchorseal on when the wood was too wet. This discoloration only happened rarely and I use Anchorseal on the ends of every green wood blank I cut.

Maybe covering the form completely with anchorseal was too much and another method would work better, bagging, sawdust?

Hey, I saw the other John Jordan dry out the wood on one of his hollow forms after turning - he put an air compressor nozzle into the opening, sealed around the opening with his fingers, and pumped air into the inside Water came bubbling out of the pores of the wood! Maybe this would work after your first turning if the wall was not too thick.

JKJ

I've had problems when wood is just too darned wet when it's coated -- picked up several pieces of freshly cut maple at one of the meetings (we were ordered to take some, LOL) and cut it up the next day and Anchosealed it. Grew fungus on the surfaces that we coated. Just too much moisture, methinks. Would have been better to let it sit for a few days, since maple is fairly stable and the piths were cut out. Am thinking next time of putting a few drops of bleach in the little can of AS.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I would blame staining by fungus as the most likely cause, especially soft maple like Silver Maple will do this readily as to my experience with that kind of wood, as we know Maple has a higher sugar content and readily spalts for that reason, the staining is a similar development IMO

[Edward Weingarden]

Interesting thought on the bleach.

[Prashun Patel]

+1 on trapped moisture being the culprit.

I anchorseal my blanks completely. I have had beech and maple both develop gray staining that runs pretty deep.

The Anchorseal itself does not penetrate deep, nor does it stain. In fact, most finishes or coverings - including dye - take serious work to get them to penetrate a full 1/8".

[Jamie Straw]

Prashun (edit): Are you speaking of unturned blanks? Have you tried just sealing the end grain and ~1" up from there, instead of the entire blank? Maple (here, Big Leaf Maple) is stable enough, that's all most of us do to it.

[Edward Weingarden]

I'm speaking of twice turning hollow forms. After the initial shaping and hollowing, I coat the entire piece with anchorseal and put it aside for a month or so to dry. Then I do the second turning to get it back to round, inside and out.

[Jamie Straw]

I'm speaking of twice turning hollow forms. After the initial shaping and hollowing, I coat the entire piece with anchorseal and put it aside for a month or so to dry. Then I do the second turning to get it back to round, inside and out.

Ooops, sorry, that question was supposed to go to Prashun, but I omitted the quote.

[Prashun Patel]

Yes, Jamie, I was talking about sealing the unturned blanks. I don't seal the faces, but I seal the sides all the way round. Part of this is because it's hard to know where the end grain ends and side grain begins. So I just go all the way round. In fact, I often twice-or-thrice seal them. Any penetrating staining is usually mild, and often disappears under the finish or forces me to be creative in coloring. And I'd say I've only ever had residual staining on maybe 10% of my beech bowls (that's a guess). I had so many cracked blanks when I started turning that I just err on the side of cryogenic preservation ;)