Anchor Seal

[W.C. Turner]

Hello,

I use anchor seal to seal green wood when I get it, but the wood usually dries before I can get it turned.

1) Those of you who use this product or another greenwood sealer, do you always rough turn the wood while it's still green? Or, do you do like me, get to it when you can?

2) Is my thinking correct, that these sealers are not meant for real long term sealing, and meant to keep the wood temporaily? Sounds like #1 doesn't it, am I repeating myself? I guess what I'm trying to convey is "How do ya'll use these products? There!

Thanks.

[Rob Russell]

My use has been for coating the ends of logs as we slice them up into lumber. My expectation has not been that the AnchorSeal would keep the ends of the boards from drying at all, just slow the process down to prevent checking.

This is a guess, but if you're trying to keep a chunk of wood green, wouldn't you need to seal it in something impermeable, like a plastic wrap or poly?

[Robert Simmons]

I try to get some Anchor Seal onto green wood as soon as I can. I rarely have time to rough turn blanks, so the pieces have to hold up until I get to them - usually a loooong time. I've found that a single coating sometimes isn't sufficient for long term storage, multiple coats or something more substantial like melted paraffin wax are better. I don't have a giant wax vat, though, so I will sometimes put another coat or two of A.S. on the wood and hope for the best. How well this all works depends on the type of wood, how wet it is when you start, and the conditions you use for drying.

Robert

[Richard Allen]

Hi W.C.

I at least try to split the wood down the pith before coating with anchor seal. Then I keep the wood outside under cover. Most wood responds okay. Fruit woods tend to check more than other woods.

This effort is maybe 3 minutes per log half, likely closer to 30 seconds. The logs tend to be about 12" across and 20" os so long. I expect to trim the log halves before I mount them on the lathe. When I do get around to turning I will often rough turn to an inch thick trying to keep an even thickness. I coat that partly dry roughed bowl again with anchor seal and let it sit in the shop for a few months. I should have a place for these roughed out bowls but I don't. I just keep kicking them around the shop till I get the urge to finish them off. Sometimes that is a couple of months but more often it is a year.

I lose a few of the half logs to checking and I lose a lot less of the rough bowls.

Thnaks

Richard

[Ron Smith ... Richmond, VA]

I haven't used Anchor Seal yet ... only because I haven't ordered any, but I have used the sealer from Woodcraft. I acquired fourteen, 8 foot logs of cherry, approximately 24 inches in diameter a few weeks ago and Woodcraft was the closest I could get some sealer, quickly. I coated all of the log ends and cut eight bowl blanks from one immediately. I coated the ends of the bowl blanks and they've been sitting in my shop for almost over a month now without a hint of splitting. I applied the sealer very thickly, almost to where it was dripping, let it dry a couple of hours, then applied another light coat. Hope this helps. The logs show a little splitting right on the very ends, but I think that happened before I got them. I turned a couple today and they are still pretty wet, but NO CRACKS! Good Luck.