Sealing End Grain

[Dave Roller]

I've always left logs in-the-round when I sealed the end grain. Can anyone think of any reason why I cannot first split them and then seal the end grain? If I did split them beforehand, should I also seal the flats of the pieces?

I've got access to some apple wood that I'm sure my back would appreciate my splitting before loading it into the truck.

Thanks.

Dave Roller

 

[Jake Debski]

Dave, apple splits/checks quickly. If you split the pith out and seal the ends, overlapping the ends onto the flat about 2 in. helps. I've had almost no success keeping apple, even when I rough turn and reseal right away. Never having tried turning green to finish, I can't address that.

 

[john lucas]

This is very unscientific. I have been playing with both for the last few years because I seem to get wood at the most inconvenient time for me to cut it up or turn it.
Short logs (like 3 feet or less) seem to hold up better if I split them at the heart and seal the ends. I cannot tell the difference in the long logs other than it is really a pain to split them with a chainsaw. Both the split logs and whole logs seem to start checking at about the same rate.
What I have found that works really well, but only on smaller logs, is to split them at the heart and dip the ends in wax. I heat the wax in an electric skillet so my size is limited to about 11 or 12" This really slows down the drying time which of course helps preserve the log. If I have time and can cut it into turning blanks and coat the whole thing it will save the piece for a year or more depending on the heating and cooling of my garage.
I don't coat the side grain except on the already cut turning blanks. For spindle turning blanks I only coat the ends with wax.

 

[Gretch Flo]

apple

My experience is as others-it splits. The owner of a place where I work part time "up North"-a woodworker- gave me some apple 2 months ago taken down to expand the business. I cut longitudinally and sealed (there were already checks). Then bandsawed out getting into "solid" wood. While turning 2 splits appeared before 10 minutes. I ended up with a natural edged bowl with 15 to 20 small cracks on ea side. I put some black mineral in to accentuate. It is almost dry and the splits aren't going anywhere. My 2" recess is oval and 2 1'4" on one end and 2" on the other. If anything, the splits on the inside have compressed. Apple has nice brown heart wood and off white sap wood. Gretch

 

[MichaelMouse]

Most of the trouble with apple is us. We want to be able to pick on the short and wide, not the tall and narrow, so we prune and louse up the loading on the trunk until it's a twisted mess. No wonder it splits. Pretty dense, too. My best luck, as with any wood, has been to rough and dry, not wait for stresses to make a mess of things.

FWIW, "volunteer" apple trees grown from the seeds of cores discarded out the school sleigh long ago are pretty cooperative. The apples are whatever, no variety, but suitable for granddaughter/poppa sharing on woods walks. Deer like them too, as do bears, who have caused me to harvest two of ours, and beavers, who took down another.

 

[Ken Grunke]

You will increase your chance of success by halving or better yet, quartering the rounds. Don't skimp on the sealer for the end grain, make it thick, but don't coat the side grain. Letting the pieces soak for a minute in hot wax is much better than globbing cold sealers like Anchorseal on the end grain.

The point of sealing the end grain only is to let the wood dry slower from the sides, stop the fast evaporation from the end grain, in order to even out the drying.

Apple may crack anyway, but maybe not as deep if heavily coated, so just allow 2-3" of sacrificial waste at each end.

 

[Dave Roller]

Thanks, everyone. I have split the logs and coated the endgrain with Anchorseal, which I had on hand. I'll watch them and recoat if I think it's necessary. I plan to rough-turn them as soon as this heat wave gets out of the East. A couple of you mentioned wax, which I think would be very good, but I don't know a source for that much wax, nor do I think I could put those large pieces into the wax. Maybe you could tell your source for wax and can it bt swabbed on or would it set up too fast?

AND, from what some of you have said I had better add a lot of CA glue to my Woodcraft order.

 

[Ken Grunke]

Plain ol' paraffin, or canning wax, available at most grocery stores. I would dip the wood if your pan is big enough, but brushing it on should work ok especially in hot weather where the wax would be slow to set.

 

[Dave Roller]

Plain ol' paraffin, or canning wax, available at most grocery stores. I would dip the wood if your pan is big enough, but brushing it on should work ok especially in hot weather where the wax would be slow to set.

Ken, I 'll try wax the next time I have a piece prone to cracking and splitting. If you can do it in Wisconsin, I suppose I can do it here in Maryland.