New Turner Needs Help And Advice Prepping And Cutting Green Logs

[Dom Garafalo]

I'm a very new turner trying to find my way and need some help and advice on prepping and how to cut some pieces of wood I just picked up after a local storm. I believe the wood is silver maple and I've attached a few photos so folks with more experience can help me confirm it is. Does it look like silver maple?

Since turning is a part time hobby and I know these log pieces will sit for quite a while I ordered some Artisan Woodsealer from Craft Supplies USA which will be here this week and I'll coat them with it right away. Can I assume this makes sense?

Since these pieces of wood are the first freshly cut ones I've ever had I'm very concerned about knowing how to eventually cutting them into turning blanks and would like some guidance. These pieces range in diameter from about 5" to 10" and to my eye seem to have very little pith?

So my initial questions are:

- Do I need to remove the pith on these?

- How should the larger diameter pieces be cut for turning bowls, lidded boxes, spindle turnings like candle stick holders, peppermills, etc?


I would appreciate any help that you can provide including pointing me to threads or links that will help answer my questions and improve my general knowledge of prepping wood for turning.

Thank you

Dom


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[daryl moses]

The ends need to be sealed ASAP. If you can't seal them place plastic bags over the ends and keep them in the shade. I place mine on the floor of my basement.
The best way to prevent end splitting IMO is to half them, cutting the pith out then I cut them into rounds and anchorseal all the way around and place them on my basement floor. I also try to rough turn them as soon as I can and again seal and keep them on the floor.
I can't stress enough how quickly they will start end checking if not dealt with soon.

[David Delo]

Nice looking stash Dom. Best scenario would have been to seal them right after cutting but obviously that's not the case. Get them sealed as soon as possible. IMO, I'd leave them just as they are until deciding what you want to make with each log. If you get them sealed soon, your just going to lose a couple extra inches off of each end. No big deal. The pieces with the offset piths look like you could get some decent size bowls from the 1 side and the more centered pith pieces could make some nice HF's and vases if you have the tools to hollow. Just my opinion.

[Brice Rogers]

I've found that with fresh cut wood in a dry climate that they will start to develop cracks in the ends within an hour. So I stick them into plastic bags and they are good for several weeks generally. If your logs are longer than the width, then you can cut off the section with the cracks. If the aspect ratio is around 1:1, you'll lose some wood from the cracks that have already developed. If I were you I would either bag the logs in plastic bags or cover the pile with a single plastic sheet and tape it to the floor. It'll hold in the moisture while you wait for your anchor seal and go through the processing.

Myself, I coat the ends with paraffin. I have also taped on a sheet of thin poly (stretch wrap) over the ends to retain the moisture.

Robo Hippy (and some others) have a good Youtube video on processing logs. Yes, you want to cut the pith out of the center. That is where the cracks will develop.

I've had the best luck when I "process" the wood and then coat the ends with paraffin or anchor seal. I have shared some wood with friends who just sealed the ends and left them for a couple of years. Both friends ended up with firewood. To process, I slice out the roughly center 2" of pith resulting in two "D" shaped pieces of log. Then I will take several of the D shaped pieces and cut out a turning rounds for either bowls, platters or plates. Easy if you have a band saw but can also be done a little more crudely with a chain saw or a sawzall and log blade. The center 2" that you sliced out can also be used for something, especially I you cut the pith out of it too. If you want to make goblets vases or boxes, then you would process your logs a little differently. The final step in processing would be to rough turn the logs into something with a uniform thickness of about 10% of its diameter. Then I wrap the end grain and stick into a paper back with damp shavings to accomplish a slow dry.

I've processed some silver maple. The rough turned stuff did well but the ones I left as cylinders (with centers) cracked badly. The wood is light colored and not as charactered as many other woods.

[Roger Chandler]

Cut the logs in half, removing the pith.....that is where most checking [cracking] begins. On the largest pieces if you could cut a little on either side of the pith even better. A 10" log should be able to be cut on a lot of bandsaws, if yours is not big enough, the the chainsaw is in order. Do seal the end grain....preferably 2 coats about an hour or so apart. Store in the shade if possble off the ground, bark side up. I have some log pieces under my deck on pallets to keep them off the ground.

After the wood dries for a few months some bowl blanks should be yeilded, and if any do crack, then cut them up into spindle blanks.

[Jamie Straw]

Roger is right on, get them cut (longitudinally), get the pith out, and seal right away. I've learned the hard way what not to do, and leaving whole logs sit is one of them. Not taking enough of the pith out is another, and using plastic may lead to mold. Don't know what the climate/environment is like in your part of New York, probably not as moist and mold-prone as here in Puget Sound, or how silver maple is about mold risk, but I've learned here to rarely use plastic. Pallets work great. I lucked out with some plastic grid that's used for driveways and horse paddocks (when filled with pea gravel), and it keeps the bowls up off the concrete floor of the shop. You might want to take a look at Turning Green Wood, book by Michael O'Donnell (https://www.amazon.com/Turning-Green-Wood-Michael-ODonnell/dp/1861080891/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471323516&sr=1-1&keywords=turning+green+wood). Has the basics about cutting, sealing, etc., plus some good illustrations on how to get various shapes out of the trees you find. If you end up chainsawing with the grain (meaning longitudinally), and you've not done that before, this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZjOCBN4T7Y)might help. Note that he has the log lying down, not standing up on its end, much easier on the chainsaw. The log in his sample takes probably more cuts than you'd need to make, but his technique is good. If you need to take a wide swath for the pith in any of the logs, the wood on either side of the pith will work for spindle blanks. Have fun, be careful!

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

I'm going to go a different route than others.

it's 5" - 10" silver maple...with no apparent figure in it. by the time you try to cut the pith out, you'll get a very small- maybe usable blank out of the wood. if you're into turning miniatures - you're set.

don't worry too much about sealing it. use it as practice wood. turn weed pots, mushrooms and other small craft items. Turn a small bowl, don't worry if you leave the pith in it. then use that to practice pyrography or dying.

personally - I would have left that stash of wood on the ground...or only picked it up for firewood. As new turners, we want to grab every piece of wood we see. Don't do it. you end up with a bunch of junk wood...then SWMBO gets upset that she can't park in the garage, etc. :D

[Prashun Patel]

Cut the pith out and seal. Branch wood can be harder to keep stable than trunk wood. Don't be discouraged. You will learn a good deal taking this set from green to finished. Have fun and good luck!!!!

[Aaron Craven]

Lots of ways to process this stuff, and others will tell you better than I can. But after you decide how to prep it, take a couple pieces and put them out in the weather -- maybe under some leaves. Maple spalts readily and you can get some gorgeous figure that way. Just check it frequently (once every few weeks) and if the wood looks like it's getting soft, put it back up to dry back out.

Also, take a few blanks and rough-turn and/or finish-turn them green. For the rough-turned bowls, paint the outside with anchorseal. For the finish-turned bowls, let them warp and even crack. Sometimes that has a beauty all it's own. In either case, turning wood while it's green is a great way to practice.

In general, maple is great wood to learn with. It's smooth-grained and cuts easily (albeit with some tear-out) and finishes very nicely. If you use CA glue for crack repair, be aware that it stains CA more easily than other woods I've worked with (don't know why).

Welcome to the vortex!

[Dom Garafalo]

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice.

While I realize this wood is not the most desirable for turning, it was free and will allow me to gain valuable hands on experience in many important aspects of woodturning.

I welcome any additional comments.

Dom

[John K Jordan]

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice.
While I realize this wood is not the most desirable for turning, it was free and will allow me to gain valuable hands on experience in many important aspects of woodturning.
I welcome any additional comments.
Dom


Dom,

Unfortunately, it is difficult to save wood very long for green wood turning. Unfortunately, not sealing right away may cause cracks but this depends on the specific tree, humidity, etc. Also, cutting it into short pieces like you have and not using it right away may quickly cause grey stain and discoloration from fungus. The bad news is that unless you can turn or give away all of that very quickly you are likely to have a nice stack of firewood.

Discolored wood and wood with some checking is fine for practice. However be warned that if checks run deep big chunks can fly apart when turning and cause serious injury.

The other John Jordan (the famous one) told us a couple of weeks ago he always leaves the logs uncut, pays to have them delivered whole if necessary, and stores off the ground in the shade. When he's ready to turn it, he cuts off about 6" from the end and throws it away then cuts a blank to turn green.

I mostly turn dry wood. What I do is process the wood with chainsaw and bandsaw. I make numerous smaller turning blanks, cut away any cracks already formed, seal the end grain and any wild figure, and stack the pieces on a wire shelf do dry (with space for air to circulate between them). I let these pieces dry 2 or more years depending on species and size. Some of the wood I'm turning now has been drying for 10 years.

I generally don't often turn big green wood this works well for me. I will make some blanks for bowls and platters, but since do a lot of smaller things and spindle turning I cut many smaller blanks which will dry quicker. I currently have dogwood, persimmon, bradford pear, soft and hard maple, walnut, cedar, elm, c.chestnut, sycamore, osage orange, sassafras, and other stacks drying.

For processing wood like this it is best to have a bandsaw that can cut fairly thick chunks. I use an 18" Rikon but for a long time I used an older Delta with a riser block. If you don't have a suitable bandsaw, it's a lot more work but you can use a chainsaw to cut into smaller pieces, coat the end grain, turn what you can now, and stack the rest to dry. I sometimes do that then years later clean up the rough surfaces to see what I have and cut away any defects. A electric Stihl chainsaw is my weapon of choice for this since I can cut the wood right in the shop.

There are a couple of unconventional ways to save big green wood for a while. One is to sink it in a pond or barrel full of water. Logs recovered from the bottom of rivers and lakes is still good years later. Another way is to freeze it. I have kept some pieces frozen for years (wrapped in plastic) and it is still good. Frozen wood won't discolor from fungas.

Another thing you can try with some of it is just put in on the ground, pile leaves around the ends, and let it spalt. That's a tricky thing to get right but if you get even some good spalted pieces out of it that would be way better than nothing.

JKJ

[Dom Garafalo]

I just received the Artisan Woodsealer I ordered last week and have a quick question about applying it.

The wood pieces in my first post were cut about 10 days ago and I can see some small cracks forming from the log centers.

Since I do not have time right now to turn them or process them into blanks, can I simply apply the Artisan Woodsealer to the ends without cutting off the cracked portions to minimize further cracking until I can get to them and properly process them into blanks?

Thank you

[Brice Rogers]

Dom, yes you can apply the anchor seal over the cracks. Give it two coats. If that doesn't cover the cracks, then give it another coat.

I made post #4 above and recommended putting a plastic tarp or bagging the wood while you were waiting for the anchor seal to arrive. I live in a dry climate and find that the logs start to crack within an hour of being cut if not bagged or coated.

BTW, I keep some plastic bags in my pickup in case I run across some free wood.

[John K Jordan]

I agree that you can apply sealer over the checks. I prefer, however, to cut back to unchecked wood then apply sealer. You can cut away the cracks now or cut them away later. But two things: if the cracks are not sealed well enough they can continue to deepen. Also, sealer applied over cracks may hide their location at turning time. When I either cut up a chunk of wood to prepare a turning blank or put a chunk on the lathe, I want to know exactly where the cracks are before deciding if and how I want to turn it.

I usually cut all the cracks out of the wood but if I decide to leave some minor cracks this works for me: mark them with a red sharpie then seal - you can see the sharpie through the wax. I often cut up log sections into turning blanks and let them dry for years before using them. When dry, I like to skim cut the sides and cut off the end grain and look for defects. If I find any cracks or checks I decide to leave in the wood, I mark them on the dry wood before storing. Cracks in dry wood won't usually get any bigger but I want their locations to be very obvious when it's time to decide if that blank will work for what I'm making. (BTW, I don't like to turn cracked wood, either dry or green. I do not belong to the school that is happy to fill cracks with metal or turquoise or epoxy in finished turnings. Some of these look great at first then start to deteriorate after a few seasons of wood movement.)

Note that when you cut away an obvious crack in log or blank the crack may extend much deeper than you can see. These invisible cracks can cause defects when turning or even cause a piece to fly apart dangerously.

I'm sure most people know this but in case someone doesn't: To evaluate hidden end grain cracks in either green or dry wood, cut a very thin slice from the end grain (I use a bandsaw) then bend the slice. If there is a hidden crack it will be obvious and the slice will separate or break along the crack. If I decide to leave a crack in the wood, I hold one half of this slice up to the blank and trace the weak line with the red sharpie, extending the line down the side of the blank as needed.

JKJ

[Bob Bouis]

Splitting at the center is expected with logs. Hopefully you can cut through the splits when you cut up the logs. Center splits tends to be quite deep [and quite inevitable], so you're just wasting wood by cutting them off.

[John K Jordan]

Splitting at the center is expected with logs. Hopefully you can cut through the splits when you cut up the logs. Center splits tends to be quite deep [and quite inevitable], so you're just wasting wood by cutting them off.

That's a good point. I plan on losing the pith either sooner or later so the cracks and checking I am most concerned with are away from the center, often in the sap wood. It is best to cut through the pith and along the longest cracks. If possible I do this with my large band saw or sawmill instead of the chain saw. When I was sawing a lot of logs I bought Anchorseal by the 55 gal drum.

Some species are much worse than others. Dogwood is one of the worst in my experience; a round will probably develop a wide split all the way from the bark to the pith.

And I found that some individual trees are worse than others of the same species, perhaps due to the growing conditions. For example I've had cherry from some trees start to crack very quickly but one big tree was the most stable cherry I've ever seen - I had rounds laying out is the sun uncoated for over six years with only minor surface checking. I cut some big chunks to dry and none of those cracked either. That wood was amazing to turn as well - I wish I had saved more.

JKJ