Preserving logs for turning

[Tom Giacomo]

Once in a while I get a few good logs for turning I usually just paint the ends with latex paint which usually keeps them for two to three months till I get to them. Last year I snagged six, four foot logs, 4 maple and 2 pear. As usual I painted the ends with latex paint then next I decided to give them a second coat and when I did I had some plastic bags the kind you get at Walmart or the grocery store, after giving a second coat I slipped the bags over the ends of the logs like putting a sock on the ends and patted the bags against the wet paint as they stuck very well to the ends. As home repairs came up I was unable to get back to them and 11 months passed before I got to them. When I pulled the bags off not one had a crack, the maple had spalted to point that I had difficulty telling where the pith was. As I cut them up for blanks I checked the MC, the pear was 17 and the maple was 15 which is very low for green logs. My question is this a good way to preserve logs for turning has any one else tried this or is this just an anomaly ?

[John K Jordan]

... My question is this a good way to preserve logs for turning has any one else tried this or is this just an anomaly ?

Tom, do you want to turn the wood green or dry? General wisdom is it is difficult or impossible to preserve logs for very long without them degrading. End checks/cracks, side splits, and fungus are all likely to happen. The difference in tangential and radial shrinkage almost guarantees cracking for many species under normal conditions. Plastic is great for the short term but any I've kept for too long either spalted like you said, some nicely, some rotting to mush. The temperature makes a difference.

You didn't give the diameter, in my experience 15-17% EMC is very low for logs, especially large diameter logs. Most will have higher moisture content for years. Were you measuring the moisture in the center of the log?

The problem many of us have is we accumulate too much wood and most of it turns to firewood. Advice from the experts is don't take any wood that you can't turn in a few weeks! Of course, this refers to green wood.

The other John Jordan, the famous woodturner, said he always turns green wood. He keeps the log intact, off the ground, and in the shade. When ready to turn a piece he cuts about 6" off the end and throws it way, then cuts off enough wood to turn one piece.

There are some other ways to preserve green wood logs for a longer time. One is "ponding", submerging the wood in water. This keeps it from drying out, obviously, and keeps the air and fungus away. Another is freezing, but a big enough freezer is unusual. Painting the ends with wax such as paraffin or anchor seal will help keep the ends from drying too fast for a while. (I have read that latex paint is not as good since it lets moisture through too quickly - I've never used it.

I personally mostly turn dry wood. I do get logs or log sections often but I usually cut them up into turning blanks with the chainsaw and bandsaw. I paint the ends of the blanks with AnchorSeal then air dry. This can take a long time unless the blanks are small. Some of the wood I'm turning now has been drying for over 10 years. What I don't process in a few weeks gets split for firewood.

BTW, where are you in SW PA? I grew up south of Pittsburgh in and around Elizabeth, McKeesport, Perryopolis, etc. Moved south in the late 60s.

JKJ

[Tom Giacomo]

John what I was getting at is I always turn green wood but was surprised that no cracks formed on the ends as I usually cut off several inches to get past the cracks. The log where form 12 to 16 inch in diameter. Also the low MC, I measured inside and out. I have since turned the wood into several hollow forms three weeks ago and the MC is down to 12. It just seemed very unusual.

[terry mccammon]

Under the heading of for what it is worth. When I get green logs, if I cannot process to blanks immediately (well in a few days), I put a really heavy coat of anchor seal on the ends and apply a couple of layers of industrial shrink wrap to the surface. That is the plastic is glued onto the cut end by the anchor seal. The logs are carried into the basement and are processed within a few months (well sometimes six or eight months). Usually no particular spalting or fungus and never any cracking. When the blanks are processed either into rounds or turning squares they are again given a heavy coat of anchor seal and again wrapped in the shrink wrap, this time all over. If enough time goes by and if I am not too lazy, at some point the plastic is removed and the blanks put back on the shelf. Usually I end up turning the sorta kinda green wood before that. Once a blank is roughed out, it gets more anchor seal and that is that. If I particularly like the wood, the product, whatever, I also give another wrap of shrink wrap. Finally, when I decide to actually finish a roughed out item (I have literally over a hundred roughed out items, I like roughing more than finishing and it is all about me) I sorta kinda take it to finish dimensions and bury it in shavings for a week or so, sort of a stress relief thing and then finally finish. At any rate it all works for me. My shop is in the basement and over a year cycle the temperature and humidity there does not change all that much and certainly very slowly over the seasons.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Getting, sealing and dividing or not logs, is something I have done for a long time already, buying and having it shipped is just not economic or even needed here with all the kinds of tree species that grow in Southern Ontario

Yes there are trees that do not grow here, but that is so in every area on earth I believe.

Free freshly cut logs are all around for free,, free wood is good

If the logs aren’t too thick and heavy I will keep them as long as possible, I Anchor seal the ends, often again after it has dried up, and I would store them in my shop and then process them as fast as possible.


I’d be standing on a thick layer of shavings, only cleaning that out when done with the rough turning, (That half log is the same as in the picture above)
Shavings.jpg

All the rough turned pieces are stuck into a brown paper bag and set away in a cool draft free place, and checked a few times the first week or two, just to make sure there is no fungus growing on the wood.


Of course some of the wood I would have to part up because of where it was or for the size of them, though I do like the larger logs, as I find the grain in them are usually nicer than the small logs.
Walnut logs.jpg Beech logs.jpg White Ash logs.jpg

On a ocasion or two I got so much wood that I could not rough that all in the next couple of days and in those times I would over the sealed wood also put a plastic bag, usually I would use some painters tape to get the bags tight over the logs.

sealed and wrapped.jpg

And yes there was some of those logs that sat just too long, like about a year and they would split, even when sealed and wrapped in plastic, these get made into spindle blanks or smaller bowl blanks if they didn’t get into rotten wood, some wood will do that while other do not,

still split.jpg

Last edited: Wednesday at 9:22 PM

[robert baccus]

Buy a couple of kid's plastic 8' dia. swimming pools for a log half preservation pond--very cheap, if you have the room and bride tolerance necessary. Good for years of preservation.

[Fred Belknap]

Robert I am wondering what happens to the bark when submerged in water for several months? I do a lot of NE walnut bowls and do have problem with the bark and also the white sap wood will turn dark when stored. I'm always looking for a better way to preserve my wood till I get it roughed out.

[robert baccus]

Hard to remember but some walnut logs held their bark for over a year recently. I took a smart pill years ago and built my bride a water lilly pond--18" deep--for the lillies of course. Made some points at home with that. She didn't even notice the dozen blocks of wood for a while.

[Jeffrey J Smith]

I put in a galvanized horse/livestock trough - about 5' wide x 24" front to back and 36" deep. Pretty cheap at the feed store. Filled with water it's a great place to put all the blanks I want to keep but don't have room for. It gets water from the downspout on the shop, keeping it more than full here in the wet northwest.

[daryl moses]

I just throw them in my Spring and hope we don't have a flood.
I've used this technique for blanks and rounds. They don't need to be completely submerged as the water will wick into the whole piece. They do get a little "slimy" after a couple of weeks but I just hose them off with the garden hose prior to turning them.