care of fresh sawn block

[John Piwaron]

I'm just starting to get turning sorted out for myself.

The part I'm working on now is not anything with the lathe or tools, it's the wood itself. I've acquired some wood from trees that were felled around my neighborhood (backyard trees.) My thought is to collect a nice enough looking chunk to saw into blocks for practicing.

The thing is that after bringing the big chunk home and reducing it to blocks for later turning, the wood begins to check after a while.

The question is, should I leave the wood in the form of the log or log segment until I'm actually ready to use it, or would sawing it into blocks with a chainsaw be o.k.? Yeah, anchorseal is something I probably should use, right?

Any advise appreciated before I ruin something much nicer.

[Jim Becker]

Yea, Anchorseal is a good idea.

Personally, I feel leaving things in the large blocks/chunks is preferable. Once you cut out a "blank" you are committed to that piece of wood relative to grain, features, size, etc. Waiting until you turn means more flexibility and could be the difference between a great turning and an outstanding one. IMHO, of course...

[Carole Valentine]

I leave wood that I will not be turning for a while in it's log form with the ends anchorsealed. They stay outside on a pallet with a tarp loosely covering them. Some pieces I saw into slabs or half rounds and completely coat everything except bark with anchorseal and store them in my shop. Round or square blanks ready to be mounted on the lathe (but which I am not going to use immediately) have anchorseal at least on the endgrain. As you can see, the common element here in all cases is Anchorseal.:)

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I haven't done any log harvesting, but everything that I have read says that you should leave it in log form, with the ends sealed.

[John Hart]

At the beginning of this year, I was clueless as to what was necessary to keep wood from cracking. Thanks to all the nice folks at SMC, I learned that sealing was everything so we spent the time sealing and learning more. The only thing I can add here is that you should be sure to saw a fresh surface so that there are no checks or cracks prior to sealing. Sometimes it doesn't matter...but most times, the cracks will continue to propagate even after trying to seal them. Anchorseal seems to be the best in price and performance. Rocklers Green Wood Sealer runs a close second.

[John Piwaron]

Thanks for all the good advise so far.

I was going to go to Rocker's to see if they have Anchorseal. I note from a previous reply that Rockler's has their own house brand. Does that mean Anchorseal isn't available there? If not, were may I find it? Of course, that doesn't mean I wouldn't choose the Rockler house brand, it's just nice to have multiple choices.

[John Hart]

Hi John,
Nope...you can't get anchorseal at Rockler. Here's the Ucoatings website. https://www.uccoatings.com/prod_anchorseal.php I think they have free shipping too. The 5 gallon quantity is a very good deal (less than $10 a gallon). Of course the price goes up as the quantity goes down. I think Rockler is $7 a quart and $20 a gallon.

Disclaimer:
I have no affilliation with either Rockler or Ucoatings. All suggestions are made in purely a neighborly helpful kinda way and I have no intention of being helpful to either of those businesses....only to the members of SMC