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Anchor Seal

J

Jason Ledbetter

Joined
Jun 29, 2005
Messages
27
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Location
North Carolina
I am interested in buying some anchor seal. I have researched the forum and found some places to purchase it, but I wondered if there are directions on the product about how to apply it, or is it pretty straight forward? Do you brush it one, roll it on, spray it on, etc.

I tried a link attached to one of the posts to access a forestry forum that was going to tell me about an alternative to anchor seal that is half the cost, but the link wouldn't work. Anyone have any information on this other product?
 
many ways to use it

Dipping, painting, rolling, its a wax emulsion so you can't do much wrong with it. In Toronto it goes for $10 a gallon. One other way that is cheaper, is to melt old candles down and dip the wood ends in it, as long as wax is hot it should hold. I've painted wax on ends and it seperated later as the wax cooled from the pan to the brush.
 
A guy on Ebay is selling some sealant that he says is just as good as anchorseal. He says it's a well known product that he's buying in bulk and selling in his own gallon containers, and that he can't use their name since he's not using one of their containers. Anyone have any ideas about trying this stuff?
 
I actually cut my anchorseal 50/50 with water to speed drying slightly so even if the guy on Ebay is watering it, it will probably still work fine. Wax emulsion is, for this purpose, wax emulsion. Mine gets all dirty and cruddy from dipping with no change in effectiveness.

Our turning club purchases by the 55gallon drum and sells for about 4-5$ per gallon. If you're near a big city, look up wax in the phone book. Pretty good chance you'll find a wholesale distributor that sells to various industries. They sell emulsion by the pound or drum and it is usually cheaper than picking up Anchorseal retail.

My next trick is going to be adding some bleach to see if this retards any mildewing.

Good luck,
Dietrich
 
Wax is not wax!

Sorry but as a chemical engineer that runs a laboratory for a chemical company that sells wax emulsions - gotta take some exception to your statement wax is wax. What anchorseal and products like it are is a parrafin wax emulsion. The solids in the product will determine how good a coverage (seal) you get with the product and how much it cost. The more refined and modified waxes such as polyethelyne are much more expensive and not needed or well adapted to this type of application - the refined and modified waxes are usually used as lubricants for applications such as preventing the needles in the sewing machines from burning and cutting the fabric.

Remember also that these are emulsions and as such contain more than just wax - they also contain surfactants that "emulsify" the wax into the water to make a stable solution. These surfactants are also counted in the "solids" of the product so one manufacturer could give you more surfactant and less wax then another manufacturer. Anchorseal also has a viscosity of 2000 cps - this is fairly thick - one of our parrafin products I am working with is less than 100 cps - water thin but still has solids of 30% same as anchorseal. While the lower vis product does not stay put as well it does penetrate the pores of the wood better. In addition to surfactants there should be biocide in the product to prevent molding (don't use chlorox as you will probably pH shock the product and kick it out of solution). Also be make sure and test a small amount if you are going to try "cutting" it with water to thin it down as you could decrease the amount of surfactant to a point it can no longer suspend the wax and the wax will then float to the surface - not good!! 😱

Remember if you open a large container and dip the wood in that you are charging organic material into the large container and may very quickly over load the amount of biocide in the product. I recommend pouring a quantity out into a seperate storage container and dipping into it then rinse the container when that amount is used and start with another quantity in your dip container. Some companies could be putting the minimum amount of biocide (or none at all) - just enough to keep the organics in the water used to make the product from causing mold - not any extra biocide to prevent molding on the wood.

Acid dye (used to dye nylon) works well when mixed with the emulsion I am using to give a color that enables you to see where you have applied the product. It so far has not stained the wood where I cannot use it. DISCLAIMER: Test any colorant you use for compatability and staining before you go to using large amounts!!

Well, I got long winded and you now probably know more about wax emulsions than you want to know! 😉 Let me know if you have any questions I will help with getting an answer.

Wilford
 
Have fun!

Jason,

Apply the Anchor Seal like your brother-in-law is paying for it. Don't be dainty, slop 'er on. Being stingy here is false economy. 😀

I usually coat every fresh surface. If I have ripped a section of a half log into squares then I coat the ends and at least two inches back on all the sides.
 
dkulze said:
My next trick is going to be adding some bleach to see if this retards any mildewing.
Click to expand...
Dietrich,

You will be wasting your time and making the stuff dangerous to handle by adding bleach to the Anchor Seal. You don't want to get bleach on your skin or clothing. When the bleach has evaporated, the chlorine is gone and so is its effectiveness. If you want something to retard mildew, add a packet of ADD-2 (made by Zinsser). It is a mildewcide that is designed to be added to exterior later paint.

Bill
 
Totally agree with Ed Moore - use Anchorseal like someone else is paying for it. A gallon is pretty cheap. And it lasts a long time.

Anchorseal is cheap. Your time is not. If you skimp on the anchorseal (thinning, etc) and you end up with a cracked bowl, then you will have mis-spent your resources.

I used about 6 gallons of anchorseal to coat 350-400 bowl blanks. The blanks were roughed out while the wood was wet. Anchorseal was applied at the end of each turning day. pic of 300 of the roughouts

In general the vast majority of the bowls did not crack. The bowls were stickered with 1/4" stickers to give some air space between the bowls. This is just my experience, but that is a large group of bowls. The anchorseal effectively retarded moisture loss to a low level and provided a more stable drying environment.

The only problem wood I encountered is oak. Oak is a very reactive wood here in central Texas. Mostly it would rather crack than become a nice turned bowl or vase.

Recently I roughed out 2 large green cedar elm (aka elm) vases, about 24" high each. Both got anchorsealed on the base. And one got totally coated with anchorseal inside and out. By mistake I totally forgot to coat the other one. Fortunately I caught the mistake the following week. It had started to check, but I coated it and that has reduced the checking.

These are my opinions and experiences, but your mileage may vary.
 
I have just been using odds and ends of latex paint for sealing the ends. I learned this elsewhere and it has worked well for me . I stand the short logs on end and slap it on thick with a brush . It dries in an hour or so and I turn it over and do the same on the other end. I have also slopped it on the ends of green lumber when sticker drying with excellent results. I generally apply a second coat when doing that because some is lost as run off.
I have a bunch of blocks of elm in my shop sealed that way at this time and some rounds of juniper and pear wood and birch outside drying in a shady location with the ends treated.
Maybe I have just been lucky or perhaps it only works on the particular woods I have used it on . I would like to hear others experiences with using latex paint . Good or bad. I watch for gallons of old latex paints at garage sales for a buck or two so I don't have to be stingy when applying it thick in its full strength.

I have never tried anchorseal or similar formulas because where I live up on the mountainside in the Canadian Rockies the shipping charges are equal to or more than the product itself.
W.Y.
 
Jeff.
I didn't see your reply for a few minutes until back tracking because I think we were both typing about the same time.
I appears that I missed the drift of the subject because you were talking about using anchorseal for sealing "after" rough turning whereas I was referring to sealing the wood before initial turning in order to keep it from cracking in from the ends until I get around to rough turning it or saving it for longer periods of time for dry turning..
That sheds a different light on it for me because I have not been doing any sealing after rough turning except the brown paper bag taped to the ouside of bowls after taking them out of the alcohol. So far it has worked great for me except in some apple wood from local orchards . I don't know if any product would have saved them or not but it would be worth a try.
W.Y.
 
William Young said:
Thanks Ed.. That sure sounds like a logical explanation.
I was curious why some reccomend latex paint as a sealer.
I can now understand that location could have a lot to do with it. Lucky me 😉
W.Y.
Click to expand...

Well, as they say, it's not the heat but the humidity. That's what sealers, bags, shavings and whatever else attempt to do - control the relative humidity around the piece to a level that allows a fairly gentle interior to exterior moisture gradient.

Before anyone buys a gallon of paint or wax, they really should get a good hygrometer. You may have ideal conditions somewhere handy. It's not as difficult as you think, as anyone who's ever grown mildew behind a closed shower curtain can attest. Calm air and monitoring may be all that's required. Tables of EMC for various relative humidities are available on the FPL site. In my experience, eighty percent is a good place to start with almost all hardwoods.

Folks with basements can probably do 80 or higher near the floor, less in other areas. Take that humidity meter on a tour to find out where the best places are.
 
Last edited:
Hi William,

The objective in sealing both end-grain and roughouts is pretty much the same - reduce the moisture loss rate. This enables the piece to dry at a uniform rate. I also use liberal coats of anchorseal on all logs I acquire. And when I chainsaw the roughouts into blanks, the blanks always get anchorsealed on all endgrain.

But this is central Texas. Even our winters are 40-60 degrees with low humidity. And the summers....well they are brutal. Sealing with anchorseal only reduces the rate of evaporation. If I coat a full round cut log with anchorseal it will only postpone its demise. Usually the objective is to at least cut the log in half within a week.

But during the brutal summer months with average highs of 90-102, I avoid chainsaw and roughout work for 2 reasons.
1) The wood is very reactive and it also dries too quickly - leading to lots of lost work due to heavy cracking
2) The body gets fried while holding a chainsaw for over 10 minutes in the sun. (I don't know how the tree trimmers do it).

I would consider alternative coatings for a different environment. But for warm and hot geographic areas anchorseal is a great solution. Also as I stated in the other post, some woods are just prone to cracking. Locally oak is a bad choice. Maybe apple has similar problems.
 
Jason Ledbetter said:
I am interested in buying some anchor seal. I have researched the forum and found some places to purchase it, but I wondered if there are directions on the product about how to apply it, or is it pretty straight forward? Do you brush it one, roll it on, spray it on, etc.

I tried a link attached to one of the posts to access a forestry forum that was going to tell me about an alternative to anchor seal that is half the cost, but the link wouldn't work. Anyone have any information on this other product?
Click to expand...

Jason contact Dave at Dave@UC coatings.com or 1-800-363-2628 he is in
Buffalo NY. they will ship any where from 50 gallon drums at special price's
for clubs and chapters to 5 or 1 gallon cans.
 
Quick thanks to Wilford and all for education regarding wax emulsions. I was aware of differences but figgered anything offered for wood sealing would be similar.

Just to pass along, a 50/50 mixture isn't enough to overload the surfactants. The wax is still in good suspension and the mix works well on roughed blanks. I do double coat end grain pieces.

And will skip the bleach, more to prevent shocking the solution than out of worry with contact. Wear gloves when I coat anyway. Will also actually skip the ADD as it's pretty toxic too. Have been known to spritz my wood down with a bleach/water solution prior to coating as mildew/mold is rampant in my basement, specially on cambium.

Thanks,
Dietrich
 
I can testify that marked-down enamel (like Rustoleum) at Lowes certainly does NOT seal end grain well. I have quite a bit of magnolia that will testify to this.
 
Redfish;
You mentioned "enamel" like rustoleum.
I agree that it would not be suitable because that product as far as I know is an oil based product and will not mix with the moisture in the wood. It would be like trying to paint damp wood with an oil based paint and it would soon peel off.
I use latex paint which is a water base product so it mixes with the moisture in the wood and seals it off just fine in my experiences with it.
Like others have said though, it may have something to do with the atmoshere where I live.
W.Y.
 
Anchorseal vs. latex paint

About two months ago, I cut down a hickory tree at my parents place in central Texas. I gave one of the logs to my dad and since I didn't have any anchorseal with me, I just painted the ends with latex paint. I also slipped the bark off, but did not put the paint anywhere except the ends. I took the rest of the hickory home the next day and coated all the ends with Anchorseal. The current status is that none of the logs have split whether painted or coated with Anchorseal. Hickory may be rather benign about splitting -- I don't know.

Oak, on the other hand, As Jeff Jilig has said, (particularly post oak, a.k.a. cross oak) is very difficult to keep from splitting. If you can store it in a relatively cool sheltered place, it has the best chance of not splitting. Despite the problem with oak splitting, I love turning it because it has some of the nicest grain pattern and colors that can be found in local wood.

Bill
 
Ray Dewey;
Doesn't matter what color it is . It all does the same good job for me.
Wife is painting the bathroom and one of the bedrooms light blue right now with latex paint..
Hhmmm .. maybe that can be classified as hillbilly blue 😀 . Hope she has some left over for me for sealing logs..
W.Y.
 
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