Thanks to You All!
Years ago I tried all sorts of things rather than Anchorseal for the false impression that there was something less expensive. I tried glue,roofing tar, caulking, latex paint, and then finally Anchorseal. What I found was wood storage is the most important. Keep it covered to keep the wind and UV off of it. Anchorseal turns out to really not be that expensive because it goes a long way. I use it on the logs after cutting. The other products turned out to be either messy or didn't work as well as Anchorseal. I put 2 coats on which seams to help with the checking a lot.
What I usually do is stack the logs on end when I get home. That effectively seals one end. Then I put a plastic bag or stretch wrap over them. They tend to sit like that longer than they should but it works to keep them from checking. They do get mold on the end but I'm going to cut that off any way. when I have time i either cut them up into pieces that can be stored more easily or into bowl or hollow form blanks. The big pieces are sealed with Anchorseal. The bowl blanks are sealed with Parrafin wax that I melt in an old electric skillet. Wax is flammable so don't use an open flame. I've stored bowl blanks for a year or more this way and it doesn't seem to cost much. If it won't roll in my pan I seal it Anchorseal.
If my logs start to check I cut them into turning blanks. I cut through the checked split and then mark the ends for squares such as 4x4, 5x5, 3x3, 2x2, etc as long as the log section is. I seal the ends with wax and put them on the shop floor to dry. If I can I may cut bowl blanks out of it if there's enough wood somewhere.
Anyway back to your original question. There are so many different ways to store wood in different parts of the country. I think each person has to try and find what works for them in their local and with their style of turning and where they store the wood. My experiments which lacked any kind of scientific validity told me that glue didn't work as well as Anchorseal. I've been playing with this dilemma for about 10 0r 12 years now and what I described above has saved me more wood than anything else I've tried. Your results may differ due to where you are and how you store the wood. Oh forgot, I never cut the pith out. It may or may not be a good idea, I just don't get around to it. Ripping logs is fare more difficult for my saw than cross cutting so I just don't mess with it and haven't seen any worse loss in my wood.
John,
I can add plain house enamel to your list of things that didn't work, even with two heavy coats. I will give a general answer at bottom but I am getting very severe cracking, ruining six foot log sections on down in just a few months. I do appreciate your information that you have already ran this rabbit trying a wide variety of stuff. Learning from other's experience is much cheaper and less time consuming than having to try everything myself!
I do think I have to try splitting my logs, takes a little strain off of them I would think and not that big a deal with my chainsaw and a sharp chain. I just threw a couple dozen log sections on the burn pile, some whole log sections only about fifty percent longer than the diameter of the log, some several times as long. Also some half sections. Might have salvaged some of the wood but probably less than 20%. I am having that much of an issue with cracking including wood stored inside a little brick building all winter.
Anchorseal Classic or Anchorseal II -- not much difference although I prefer the Classic. Both are wax/water emulsions. Classic uses Propylene Glycol as an antifreeze agent while II has about 8% methanol which is very toxic. Classic seems to hold up a bit better on the wood in the hot weather here, maybe be cause of the propylene glycol. Titebond II, maybe in a pinch, but we don't want to make the end grain impervious to losing moisture, just slow it down to stop cracking. Mixing with that much water might work or it might be a placebo. Some of my friends who use Anchorseal stretch it out so thin on the wood that one gallon ought to be a lifetime supply, but I think that they are both being cheap and wasting their time. When I apply Anchorseal, I mop it on very thick and sometimes two applications on end grain if the wood is left outdoors. Our club buys Anchorseal in bulk and sells it for $9 a gallon to club members so it is much cheaper than buying it from Woodcraft or Rocklers. And, a gallon lasts a very long time even when applying it thick like I do. I pour some in an old coffee can and use a 50 cent paintbrush to smear it around, but an old t-shirt will also work. I've also used my bare hands and a side benefit is that it gives my hands soft smooth skin and hides wrinkles and cracks. 🙄
Bill,
I am casting eyes on a tallow tree to keep me entertained until I get some Anchorseal Classic here to cut better wood. I'll probably smear some pure Titebond II on some of those tallow tree cuts just because I have a gallon here. There are enough tallow trees on the place and I value them so highly that they are the perfect thing to experiment on.
🙄 Gonna have to get the Anchorseal though, the baby soft hands sold me.
Hu
I use anchor seal on half logs and have used it on roughed out bowls with great success.
It slows the drying by blocking the escape of water. It lets moisture through slowly so that bowl roughouts can in fact dry but take 8-12 months.
Round bowl blanks I wrap in plastic for a day or two if I can't turn it the day I cut it.
I have frozen them for several months. I do not think anchor seal will keep bowl blanks from cracking more than a week at best.
My half logs develop end checks with the anchor seal. I plan on cutting off at least 2" from both ends of the half log to eliminate the end checks.
Don't have this luxury in a round blank.
If you want to keep round bowl blanks use parafin as John suggested.
I just cut the blanks as I turn them storing the wood in the half log. Some of my half logs will have 2 maybe 3 blanks. It will cut all the blanks round when I process the half log. Any that I cannot turn that day I put in plastic bags. I have need using shrink wrap for this quite often.
As to the half logs. The wood will generally get ugly before it cracks. Within a few weeks the sapwood will begin to grey and loose its white color.
Bleach can bring it back a little. After about 2 months it may not be worth turning for me.
When I lived I'm Maryland the cold keeps the wood fresh in fall and winter. A log cut and stacked in October likely would ha little discoloration in march.
While a log cut in May might be dis-colored badly by the end if June.
Have fun,
Al
Al,
I don't understand why I get so much worse cracking than those like yourself that I would think are in very similar climates. My whole logs and sections were stored where they might have gotten sunlight two hours a day or less, I ruined the long pieces, short pieces, half logs, and logs. I am going to try the shrink wrap for some applications that you and John both mention. Freezing some special pieces is a thought too, I have an empty fairly large chest style freezer.
Thinking about it, this area is surprisingly windy and there is almost always at least a nice breeze where I stored my outside wood. Perhaps the wind is doing more damage than the sun, hadn't considered it.
Hu,
I"m in SE Texas and it likely gets as hot'n humid here as it does where you are.
I use Anchorseal 2 on my logs. The bulk of my wood is outside, off the ground, and tarped (You should see that part of my yard....well--maybe not). The anchorseal works fine, and does go a long way; mine goes on with a brush. Like John says, I expect some checking, that gets cut out later, & mold too--although some of that makes spalting. If I run out of it I just use paraffin the same way.
Only thing is when I go to get some wood I have to watch for scorpions (common around here) and copperheads (just about as common).
David,
Happy to say that while we have our share of copperheads and I have an acre pond full of snakes next to my house, I don't have scorpions! Black widows, brown widows, a couple other spiders with a pretty nasty bite but I have never seen a scorpion in Louisiana. Of course I never saw a roadrunner until about twenty years ago.
I can live with a few inches of checking, my cracks are often end to end. I can tarp wood on this property with no real issues other than the varmints, no wife unit to cause cracks in the wood and my noggin when the two meet.
General Reply:
First a very sincere thank you to everyone! All of the slightly different perspectives are very helpful. My wood looks like it is end checked but the cracks don't stop, often going end to end of a twenty-four inch or longer piece. I suspect I have a combination of problems, some wood was stored in direct sunlight, some in the little building, and some in a tin barn that can get very hot in the summer. Some was in heavy shade but as mentioned above, in a very breezy area.
I am going to stick some pure Titebond II on some sample chunks of tallow I am planning to fresh cut tomorrow. Regardless of how that seems to work I am going to order five gallons of Anchorseal Classic. Two coats on the ends and about an inch in, might experiment with a light coat on the raw side of some of the half logs. I have to find a way to keep my wood alive, starting to have requests for pieces and no wood fit to turn. Fortunately most just have to be ready for Christmas.
Thank You One and All!
Hu
