# processing urban logs



## kweinert (Mar 25, 2012)

Ok, so today one of the guys from the local woodturner's club had a sale, trying to clear out some of his wood. By day he's an arborist and has collected quite a bunch of different wood.

I was telling him about the ash and plum that I acquired and his advice was to process it into blanks and then wax it so that it dries slowly.

At the time I didn't ask enough questions so I'm back to bother you folks.

I am, at the moment, cutting into pen and stopper sized blanks. When waxing this size stuff should I dip the whole thing in wax or just the ends? In either case is a single dip enough or should I build up a coating?

I found one piece that has a real pretty flash of purple in it, along with some green rings.

Some of the pieces of plum I have are large enough for small bowls. Should those be waxed on just the end or the entire thing?

When cutting out the blanks does it make sense to try and cut for a live edge bowl? The bark is pretty thin so I'm not sure that makes sense.

And now for the ash. Basically the same questions as above - or should I just paint the ends and let them slowly dry and process them later?

Sorry for so many questions and I really do appreciate you folks lending your expertise and experience.


----------



## woodtickgreg (Mar 25, 2012)

Ok I'll start the replys so others can jump in. If you cut square blanks and they are still wet seal the entire piece, as far as the plum goes, fruit woods can be problematic and prone to checking. I would cut them into blanks and remove the bark and seal the entire thing. Most people here use anchor seal or products like it, baileys has there own brand of sealer and it might be a little less expensive. If you are going for a live edge bowl I would rough turn it and then seal it or bag it in a brown paper bag with the shavings for a few months and then return it. I would also remove the pith before sealing, this is probably one of the biggest things you can do to help prevent checking. P.S. your chisel is coming along nicely!


----------



## DKMD (Mar 25, 2012)

I seal the endgrain only on pen and stopper blanks… I just dip them in anchor seal, but melted paraffin wax will do the job too. I seal bowl and hollowform blanks entirely until I can get them roughed out… You'll have better luck drying roughouts than entire blanks unless you've got access to a kiln. As Greg said, fruitwoods can be difficult… Sealing the endgrain and bagging them to slow the drying has been helpful to me.


----------



## kweinert (Mar 25, 2012)

No kiln yet, but I do have plans :)

I now have a collection of pen and stopper blanks in the plum, have to sort out how to get the bigger pieces into bowl blanks. I dipped them completely instead of just the ends.

I don't believe that with a single dipping I got a complete seal - it's pretty thorough, but I'm 99% positive that it's not complete. Given a lack of kiln is there any guesstimate on how long it should take to dry? 

And I've not turned wet wood for pens/stoppers yet - once turned does the finish keep them from drying out too quickly or is there something else I need to do once they're turned - or do I wait for them to dry before turning?

i know, I know - a lot of questions. I do appreciate the loan of your expertise though. Thanks again.


----------



## kweinert (Mar 25, 2012)

Here are a couple of pictures from the highlights of what I found when slicing up the wood.

It's interesting - one of the things that worried me most was somehow cutting the wood in to blanks and in the process screwing it up. Screwing it up being defined as not cutting it so the prettiest stuff would show. 

But how do you know what's inside until you cut it up? It's a Catch 22, isn't it?

Here are a couple of bottle stopper blanks that show some purple:
[attachment=3445]

and here are some pen blanks that show some nice grain and one with a bit of that purple:
[attachment=3446]

Anyone have any experience with turning plum? If the purple goes deep enough to be seen after turning, does it stay visible like that once finished?


----------



## kweinert (Mar 25, 2012)

Joe Rebuild said:


> Not sure about the color fastness of it but it sure would make a nice table if it was bigger.



It would, but I don't have a piece of it over 6" wide and only one of those. Everything else was much smaller.


----------



## Ancient Arborist (Jun 4, 2012)

Ken,
I just found this posting. Others are.welcome to chime in on this, but the theme of my drying advice was based on our dry climate. It's not the drying, but the speed and uniformity of the process. Controlling this by coating the wood so its slow and uniform. Especially the plum. By the way, if you have any disasters, remember my offer to locally purchased wood (this was my wood sale). I will replace those pieces if you return the "ruined" wood to me. I think the purple may stick around if it is protected from uv exposure.


----------



## kweinert (Jun 4, 2012)

Ancient Arborist said:


> Ken,
> I just found this posting. Others are.welcome to chime in on this, but the theme of my drying advice was based on our dry climate. It's not the drying, but the speed and uniformity of the process. Controlling this by coating the wood so its slow and uniform. Especially the plum. By the way, if you have any disasters, remember my offer to locally purchased wood (this was my wood sale). I will replace those pieces if you return the "ruined" wood to me. I think the purple may stick around if it is protected from uv exposure.



This was wood I reclaimed from the trimming they did around my office building, nothing of what I got from you - but I appreciate the offer.

It turns out that in my ignorance I did 'lose' a lot of the plum because too late I got the info about cutting out the pith. Some of the bigger pieces can be cut down into pen sized blanks but others just became experience :)


----------



## Mike1950 (Jun 4, 2012)

I think it is one of those chicken and egg things- experience helps but the only way you get that is by doing. Every tree is different. That is the joy of wood..............


----------

