alternative to anchorseal

[dkulze]

Just discovered a quicker, cheaper way to seal wood than anchorseal.

I had picked up a roll of wrapping celophane to use in another project (the type they use to wrap up stacks of phone books, etc, comes on a little handle). Was wanting to seal some fresh cut blanks and always have the mess of the anchorseal to deal with.

Wait a minute. Wrapping plastic. Green wood with nice, defined edges.

EUREKA!!!!

A quick wrap seems to work well. On square/rectangle blocks, I do a few wraps around, lengthwise, a quick rap around each end to secure, then cut the middle of the first wrap loose. It ends up with both ends sealed nicely and plenty of exposed wood to continue drying. Also, the seal is not quite air tight so the ends keep drying too. ON a round blank, a wrap of two around the edge.

I'll still use the anchorseal for irregular pieces and coating the whole outside of some pieces, but this seems to work really well and quickly on regularly shaped pieces, with no mess or fuss.

Dietrich

 

[Mark Mandell]

Dietrich,

Hate to break your seal, but wrapping in plactic, like putting in plastic bags, will cause blue-stain and other mold to grow, especially on maple; you won't like the result. The wax emulsion is designed to slow down drying, not stop it.

If you really want to keep'em "green-wet," submerge your blanks in water. What, no "log pond" in your back yard? Well a good strong plastic garbage can will do. Just make sure that it's very clean. You can also add a little mineral oil on top to prevent the mosquitoes from using it for a nesting space.

m

 

[Bernie Weishapl]

I agree with Mark. Plastic wrap is not the way to go. I just got some wood from a gentleman off the big auction site. He said the wood was green and sealed. Looked good and don't get me wrong, it was nice wood except for when I got it, it was sealed with plastic wrap, was green but had mold, the inside of the plastic wrap was just dripping with water condensation and had the most sour foul smell. Had to leave it outside to air before I could turn it. Anchorseal, latex paint, Green Seal or whatever is better than plastic wrap. Just my humble 2 cents.

 

[MichaelMouse]

Short-term fix. Sounds reasonable. You're turning like mad to get the pieces hollowed out, right? Cardboard stapled on the ends seems to do as well. I'm going back to roughing this afternoon on my gift logs. They're still sitting with the bark on and the freshly cut end heaped with chainsaw shavings.

Dietrich points up the reason I don't use anchorseal on bowls - mildew. Hasn't proven necessary, to tell the truth, after they're roughed. I use it on the ends of cylinders I'm saving for other things, though, and for the ends of slabs of figured or spalted firewood awaiting resaw. Those black spots get inside pretty quickly, and I haven't found a wood yet that I felt was improved by their presence.

 

[dkulze]

Actually, I don't fully wrap it. Just the exposed end grain surfaces. The wrap isn't exceptionally tight either. Will let you know how it handles with mold/fungal growth.

Have actually had more problems with bluestain/mold with anchorseal than with any other method.

Dietrich

 

[john lucas]

I've had good luck putting whole pieces in plastic bags for up to a month. Cut up blanks I will often put in a plastic bag with the mouth sort of open so it can get some air. My best friend turns bowls and leaves a thick tenon on the bottom while drying. He ties a plastic bag around the tenon and stored the bowls with the lip down. It serves him well.

 

[Griesbach]

I was at David Lancater's demo last year in KC and he mentioned using lemon juice on cherry to stop the blue staining can occur. I guess he just wipes it on the rough outs before putting them in his kiln. I haven't tried this on any type of wood. Any thoughts out there on this process?

 

[Bill Boehme]

Dietrich, you don't want to stop moisture loss -- just slow down the loss through end grain so that it approximately equals the loss through side grain. I had a piece of wood on which I did essentially what you suggest and after about six months, there were:

1. GOOD NEWS -- no cracks
2. BAD NEWS -- the ends and wrapped sides were completely black with mildew.

I bought some tropical wood from Peru that had been wrapped in celophane -- it was still very wet and was very mildewed in short order.

Bill

 

[Gretch Flo]

mold

I am a little confused. Dietrich said he only used the plastic lenthwise, leaving the sides open, and I didn't understand how he cut the first wrap so it was loose. Anyway, will leaving the sides open prevent BAD mildew? When I don't have the woodstove going in the basement, real wet wood will get a white furry mildew on it-I don't start my basement dehumidifier usually til end of May, and of course that helps and I usually don't have real wet wood anyway. Gretch

 

[dkulze]

I used one of those rolls of wrapping cellophane that is about 3-4" wide. A few wraps around the piece lengthwise, a wrap around each end to hold it, cut out the middle. I don't wrap super tight and there are small spaces present.

I do figure that mold would be a problem if this was a long term solution but it's pretty much to keep stuff that is really green from cracking for a couple of weeks.

Dietrich

 

[Richard Baker]

I've been using a couple layers of plastic grocery bags secured with rubber bands or masking tape to cover just the ends of some small hackberry (to 6" dia.) "logs", stored in the barn w/ no heat or a/c. They dry without cracks, and spalt nicely, but with no mold or mildew. Might not work on bigger stuff or other kinds of wood.