A year or so ago I did a side-by-side comparison of coating rough-turned bowls with Anchorseal and Elmers glue (after viewing an IRD with Mike Mahoney in which he said he uses Elmers). He also mentioned sprinkling Boric Acid (powder / granular) in the paper bag to prevent/eliminate/minimize mold and mildew within the bag during the drying process. So I included that too in some of the bags and not in others. I labeled all bags with what I had done to the blank or put on the blank. I had Tulip Poplar and Bradford pear at the time. Rough-turned the bowls, coated them completely with one or the other, put them in a brown paper bag, with shavings, some with BA, some without, and waited nine months. This was all done in Houston TX (humidity is our middle name).
I had 12 poplar blanks and 6 BP blanks. ALL were viable, none were failures (none cracked). The Boric Acid powder seemed to do the trick regarding mold/mildew elimination in all uses. My conclusion is that I will, henceforth, use Elmers glue as my sealer. And I’ll put BA in the bag every time as well. Plain Elmers white glue is MUCH cheaper than Anchorseal, and much more readily available in a gallon size.
My $0.02 from a very small experiment. YMMV
I had 12 poplar blanks and 6 BP blanks. ALL were viable, none were failures (none cracked). The Boric Acid powder seemed to do the trick regarding mold/mildew elimination in all uses. My conclusion is that I will, henceforth, use Elmers glue as my sealer. And I’ll put BA in the bag every time as well. Plain Elmers white glue is MUCH cheaper than Anchorseal, and much more readily available in a gallon size.
My $0.02 from a very small experiment. YMMV
