Storing wood

[chrisdaniels]

hey you could put a hickory or cedar bowl in there to flavor your salmon at the same time!!! cedar smoked fish is delicious.

 

[Jamie Straw]

Thanks, Jamie. I'll give it a go shortly. I might try something with porous grain that dries easily and then another that I know would take forever to dry properly.

I'm thinking a pressure canner could go on your kitchen budget, and would in no way count toward your turning budget.

We might just have to start a new thread. Do you think I could can some smoked salmon at the same time?

Zach

You and Chris come up with some of the best ideas!

 

[chrisdaniels]

I turned about a dozen walnut bowls the other day and covered them all with anchorseal, is there any reason why I can't put them in rubber totes or will that cause problems with the restricted air flow?

 

[Bill Boehme]

With the pressure cooker, water boils at a lesser temperature, so I would guess less energy is used, but don't know of any king sized ones to put many bowls in rather than one or two.......

Water boils at a higher temperature in a pressure cooker. The reason for using a pressure cooker for anything is that it allows you to cook at a higher temperature than you would be able to do so otherwise. Remember that the temperature of water goes no higher than the boiling point. So, if you had an open container of boiling water at sea level, the maximum temperature would be 212° F. If you were in the mountains at around 10,000' elevation, the boiling point would be close to 190° F. A typical pressure cooker will allow a pressure of about 15 PSI over atmospheric pressure which at sea level would result in a boiling point of about 250° F.

I'd be interested to hear more about the pressure cooker....

For me, knowing that almost nobody uses it leads me to suspect that there is no real payoff. I can imagine that there are some specialized situations where it might be warranted, but nothing that I do falls into that category.

I turned about a dozen walnut bowls the other day and covered them all with Anchorseal, is there any reason why I can't put them in rubber totes or will that cause problems with the restricted air flow?

I don't know what a rubber tote is, but the connotation tells me that is the wrong thing to do. Think of the results with wrapping green wood in plastic. Anchorseal provides just the right amount of sealing to slow down the loss of moisture without blocking it to the point of causing mold to develop. The ideal way, from my point of view is to do it the way that Odie described ... coat it with Anchorseal and stack them with stickers or some other way that allows the free flow of air. BTW, it is possible to apply too much Anchorseal to wood that is very wet. I mopped a very generous coating of Anchorseal on some very wet maple bowls and then a few days later added some more just to get rid of the last bit of Anchorseal that I had in a container. I got a nice black mold growing under the Anchorseal after a couple weeks.

 

[hockenbery]

I turned about a dozen walnut bowls the other day and covered them all with anchorseal, is there any reason why I can't put them in rubber totes or will that cause problems with the restricted air flow?

Like Bill mentioned above, If you want the sealed bowls to dry they need to be exposed to the air.
In space with relative humidity less than 50 %
Something like a plastic milk crate would work. A solid plastic box will restrict the air too much.

When I used anchor seal, I stacked bowls opening down on a wire or plastic ribbed shelve with lots of openings.
Additional layers of bowls stackers opening down where the rim is supported by 3-4 bowls below. Don't nest the bowls.

Al

 

[john lucas]

I often seal bowl blanks in plastic wrap. It works well to prevent cracking but does promote mold and really really slows down drying. I use it when I want to save bowls for a reasonably short period and they will be just about as wet when I turn them as they where when I cut them. Then mold is usually on the outside but of course you don't want to breath that so I wipe it off before turning. I think the plastic tub would do the same thing. Sealing them with wax completely slows down the drying tremendously and doesn't cause mold. Sealing just the end grain portions is the best method if you want to slowly dry them but does increase the chances for checking. Sealing the endgrain and storing them where there isn't any sun or wind is about the best way.

 

[odie]

It seems to me that when mold and mildew is most active, is around 18-20% MC. I normally don't see this with very wet roughed and sealed bowls with a high MC....until it dries out a bit. I do completely anchorseal all roughed bowls above 14% MC. The anchorseal is breathe-able, but does slow moisture evaporation considerably. It's my opinion that as much surface exposure as possible, along with air circulation is important.

When seasoning roughed bowls, it should be understood that no rules are absolute. I think it was Robo that once said that seasoning roughed bowls is not a science.....it's more of an art!

ko

 

[john lucas]

Odie you are so right. I suppose it is a science but only if you have the exact same conditions the scientists had. Most of us have to figure out what works at our location mixed with the knowledge of what the experts do. What works for me in Tennessee might not work for someone in Florida or Oregon. And even here in Tennessee if you store wood differently than I do you will still have mixed results. don't forget about species. A lot of us also mix in a little "this is what works for me". For example I found out that if I leave sharp edges on roughed out bowls I get checks. Not all the time but enough that I round them over. I think this is because the sharp edge loses moisture faster than the rest of the bowl. I know others who never do this and they don't live 90 miles from me. It could be that there's some simple thing in their environment that is different than mine that is causing the problem and not the sharp edges.

 

[Bill Boehme]

It seems to me that when mold and mildew is most active, is around 18-20% MC. I normally don't see this with very wet roughed and sealed bowls with a high MC....until it dries out a bit....

I buy a bunch of ambrosia maple bowl blanks from one of the wood vendors at SWAT every year to make bowls to donate to the Empty Bowls Project. They are heavily waxed and typically dripping wet. I rough them out as soon as I get home and they do sling a bit of water. I've found that if I wait around too long before roughing them out that black mold will rapidly build up and penetrate into the wood. After roughing, I apply Anchorseal over the entire surface, but as I mentioned previously, if I apply in in really heavy dripping coats then the mold problem will return.

I can't say what the moisture content is by the time that I wax them or whether it grows faster as the moisture content goes down because I have also seen the mold fairly active when the wood is about half dry. I suspect that the proliferation of mold growth is more a factor of time and temperature than a particular moisture range once it gets started.

... I do completely anchorseal all roughed bowls above 14% MC. The anchorseal is breathe-able, but does slow moisture evaporation considerably. It's my opinion that as much surface exposure as possible, along with air circulation is important.

... Sealing them with wax completely slows down the drying tremendously and doesn't cause mold. Sealing just the end grain portions is the best method if you want to slowly dry them but does increase the chances for checking. Sealing the endgrain and storing them where there isn't any sun or wind is about the best way.

I tend to agree with Odie's perspective on applying Anchorseal. I completely coat the piece and try to not overdo it.

My reason for coating the entire piece rather than just end grain is ... when you think about it, on a round piece of cross-grain turned wood, there is exposed end-grain over the entire surface. You can say that part of it is predominantly side-grain and other parts are predominantly end-grain, but what is the line of demarcation between the two? Would any two people come up with the same answer? The rationale often given is that there is no moisture loss through side-grain and therefore no reason to apply Anchorseal. But, on the other hand, it does no harm to coat side-grain other than a few extra pennies worth of Anchorseal.

 

[chrisdaniels]

thanks for the responses. I have turned my guest room into a drying room. blacked out the window and it stays at a steady 58-60 degrees in there most of the year and 44% humidity. I bought 3 of those 6' tall metal racks and put them up there today for drying racks. I have been coating the last 50 or so roughed out bowls fully in anchorseal and it seems to make all the difference so I believe that's going to be my method. I figure if I rough turn, coat in anchorseal and leave in my wood storage area for about 3 weeks to a month then I can bring them into my drying room after that. just started doing bowls in february and march so I don't have that many roughed out yet. red oak, white ash, black ash, hard maple, ambrosia maple, spalted hard and spalted red maple, basswood, walnut and a couple of burl vases and bowls so far. have some locust sitting outside that my ma brought me, have another half dozen ash, birch, and maple to do then I can start on those.

 

[odie]

thanks for the responses. I have turned my guest room into a drying room. blacked out the window and it stays at a steady 58-60 degrees in there most of the year and 44% humidity. I bought 3 of those 6' tall metal racks and put them up there today for drying racks. I have been coating the last 50 or so roughed out bowls fully in anchorseal and it seems to make all the difference so I believe that's going to be my method. I figure if I rough turn, coat in anchorseal and leave in my wood storage area for about 3 weeks to a month then I can bring them into my drying room after that. just started doing bowls in february and march so I don't have that many roughed out yet. red oak, white ash, black ash, hard maple, ambrosia maple, spalted hard and spalted red maple, basswood, walnut and a couple of burl vases and bowls so far. have some locust sitting outside that my ma brought me, have another half dozen ash, birch, and maple to do then I can start on those.

That sounds like a very good way to go, Chris......with your two-step storage room and drying rooms. Is your 2nd step drying room climate controlled as well? I would imagine your climate in Michigan is better for seasoning roughed bowls, than in Bill's Texas location. In general, the first 1/3 of the drying process is where if a roughed bowl is going to develop cracks, and if it does happen, that's when it's going to happen. I would imagine, in Texas, the real trick is to significantly slow down the process, whereas in MI and MT, it wouldn't be such as big an issue. Of course, the humidity in all three locations are not likely the same.......so, that would be a factor in any"regional" discussion.......

My reason for coating the entire piece rather than just end grain is ... when you think about it, on a round piece of cross-grain turned wood, there is exposed end-grain over the entire surface. You can say that part of it is predominantly side-grain and other parts are predominantly end-grain, but what is the line of demarcation between the two? Would any two people come up with the same answer? The rationale often given is that there is no moisture loss through side-grain and therefore no reason to apply Anchorseal. But, on the other hand, it does no harm to coat side-grain other than a few extra pennies worth of Anchorseal.

Bill......That gives a pretty good mental picture of where the moisture releases in a roughed bowl. It would apply, in theory, for a straight grained piece of wood. Now, if that piece of wood had a swirly, quilted, or burly, grain then the moisture release might not be subject to any generalized theoretical application. In the "side grain", or what I've come to think of with the term, "long grain", it doesn't have to go very far around the circumference before the end grain is gradually becoming exposed.....there isn't much of an area that one could think of as nothing but side grain. I think you're right that it's wise to just anchorseal the entire surface inside and out......just to cover all the bases, forget about discussions of logic, and be done with it!

ko

 

[chrisdaniels]

my wood storage is just inside the door to my basement, it's like a cellar, concrete walls. couple of shelves where I keep my blanks until I need them. it isn't controlled persay, but the basement is and it's connected to the basement so I guess it sort of is. anyways I checked some of the first maple bowls I did a couple months ago that I didn't seal and they all cracked and nothing that I used anchorseal on did so that's that for me.