Why do people seam to think they can dry thick pieces of wood it just does not work. Add to what hockenberry said that it will likely crack it may also rot. Green wood is so much more pleasant to turn anyway. Ankorseal is not meant to seal but rather to slow down the drying process on the end grain to match the side grain and don't forget the moisture must migrate from the inside to an outside surface so the thicker the piece the longer it will take to dry.Most effective way to beat the bugs is Turn it now over the next 2 weeks either as once turned pieces or rough outs to dry for returning when stabilized
Drying a 15” diameter half log will take 5-8 years or more air drying and most likely crack before it dries
Drying a 14” diameter bowl with a 1.25” thick wall can take 8-14 months
See the thread below. It has the 3 parts of a demo I did on green wood turning.
Powerpoint on wood and how it moves
Video of rough turning a bowl for drying
Video of mounting and returning a dried bowl.
Working with green wood
The August 2015 AAW JOURNAL has great article by David Ellsworth on working with green wood. This is followed by 11 marvelous ways turners turned cracks into features. One of David's themes is that the deck is stacked against newer woodturners successfully working with wet wood. Might be a nice...www.aawforum.org
I have to disagree and I can send pictures if you like. I have 6-8" thick blocks of soft maple and catalpa that I harvested from the log and they are 10 years old. Not a single crack in them. There are no hard and fast rules about every species of wood. I can also show you the same kind of block that is riddled with powder post beetle tunnels and holes. If I ever intended to harvest wood again, I would absolutely treat it with one of the borax based preventative pesticides. I have been cutting down blocks of wood for 3 weeks from my shed and I shed a tear often as a nice block of maple burl is riddled and ruined by powder post beetle. I burnt about 2,000 board feet of several species I had stored in a shed on the family farm. 2"x20"x10' long curly maple went into the bonfire. The walnut and catalpa were the main species that survived.
Jeff is that like what the Tobacco Co. where telling us ?
You want Boric acid, also called hydrogen borate - its often sold as roach killer, but you just need 100% boric acid without any kind of lure or bait mixed in, although I’ve used both and it doesn’t seem to make much difference. The amount of ‘bait is often less than 1%. Borax - 20 mule team and others - is typically sodium borate - the salt form. I have not used it for mold mitigation so can’t speak to its effectiveness.
