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Starch as End Grain Sealer

MichaelMouse

MichaelMouse

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May 16, 2005
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Got an offer for DVDs from FWW that triggered an old memory today. Swedish woodcarver DVD on dough bowls and spoon carving. I recalled an old article where the use of boiled potato as an end-grain sealer was promoted. I tried it at the time, but since the spoons I carved never showed any bad end checks, I concluded it was a solution without a problem. Anyone ever use potato or cornstarch as an endgrain sealer with a success rate higher than "going bare?"

In the bad old days of starched fatigues I recall that a bit too much of the spray variety made a pretty tough crust on and in the fabric. Cotton is cellulose, wood is cellulose, maybe starch would work.

Anyone who paid the price for use of the index who could get me to the year, if not the article itself? I have a lot of back issues.
 
Shop Made Grain Fillers

MM - a quick search of the FWW online database shows articles in issues #108, #144, and #177. The first two are on the use of commercially available grain fillers, the latter discusses shop made mixtures of linseed oil and pumice as well as mixtures using plaster of paris.

Didn't find any reference to potato starch, boiled potatos, etc. but I would think that it would work. Aany powdery material in a carrier that dries and is not easily dissolved afterword by subsequent finishes, should work.

Fourth of July weekend is an excellent opportunity to experiment. Should be something on the way to becoming potato salad, somewhere.🙂

Jerry
 
they must have sampled my cooking. Near as I can tell that's about the only good use for my mashed potatoes. 🙂 Would sweet potatoes be better? For now I think I'll stick to Anchorseal or wax.
 
That's the index, but I can't raise the article. Spent a long lunch leafing through up to 1990. I am now convinced it must have been in another magazine, like American Woodworker. Or perhaps in one of my carving books. Since I was ten years plus into spoon carving by 1990, I didn't search further.

Didn't realize how many turning articles FWW used to carry. Spent time on Ed Moulthrop, "taming of the Skew," and such. Can't justify more time with my honeydew load, so I guess I better fill with diesel and get going to the woods. .
 
I wonder what commercial lumber producers use? I remember having bought lumber with wax on the ends (mostly cabinet wood), and lumber that was dipped in a rather thin, non-wax substance. The latter was usually red or green and was used on structural lumber--even plywood!
 
Natty Boh said:
I wonder what commercial lumber producers use? I remember having bought lumber with wax on the ends (mostly cabinet wood), and lumber that was dipped in a rather thin, non-wax substance. The latter was usually red or green and was used on structural lumber--even plywood!
Click to expand...

Betting that's identification, not sealer. Practice up here is to cut hardwood over length and accept a bit of end checking, which is self-limiting. You'll get a good 96" in a 102" plank, usually more, because they're not left in the log very long.

They get some identifying paint on the ends, then the stack is normally identified with a different color graffito. Thus you see a flatbed going by with orange "5/4 S&B HM" on one pallet, green "4/4 #1 COM SM" on the next, and so forth. Given the time from woods to work, it just doesn't pay to do more.

Yeah, John, I just can't find it where I thought I saw it. Becoming a more familiar happening every year. They use starch as sizing elsewhere, why not on wood.
 
MichaelMouse said:
Betting that's identification, not sealer. Practice up here is to cut hardwood over length and accept a bit of end checking, which is self-limiting. You'll get a good 96" in a 102" plank, usually more, because they're not left in the log very long.

They get some identifying paint on the ends, then the stack is normally identified with a different color graffito. Thus you see a flatbed going by with orange "5/4 S&B HM" on one pallet, green "4/4 #1 COM SM" on the next, and so forth. Given the time from woods to work, it just doesn't pay to do more.

Yeah, John, I just can't find it where I thought I saw it. Becoming a more familiar happening every year. They use starch as sizing elsewhere, why not on wood.
Click to expand...

Didn't think of that. I agree. Otherwise, why put color on plywood.
 
I have used latex paint when I ran out of end grain sealer. It works and I don't seem to see any color seaping into the wood grain, soooo with all the left over interior paint I have holding down a table, I'm rich with sealer.😀
 
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