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Home > Wood Turning - Keeping The Wood Healthy
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Wood Turning - Keeping the Wood Healthy by Darrell Feltmate
Wood starts as a living material and should really be treated as such once it gets to the shop. We are becoming continually aware of the need for ecological soundness in our life practices and wood turning is no different.
From its very roots, wood turning is an ecologically sound practice. Most of the wood used by turners comes from waste wood. While more and more communities are becoming better able to handle waste wood and to see it being moved into usable areas such as heat and energy production or the development of alternative building materials, this is confined generally to the waste from industrial applications of wood products or large scale harvesting.
Wood turners are able to use wood as a log or "in the round" as opposed to cabinet makers or luthiers for example. Thus what might be considered waste by some is considered to be working capitol for a turner. Much of this wood may come from local arborists and tree removal companies and thus saves the company a tipping fee at the landfill and saves landfill volume as well. In the same regard is wood that comes as a result of dead fall from storms and such. Still more wood may be rescued from the firewood suppliers.
Once the wood is obtained it is necessary to keep it well until time to turn it is available. Unfortunately, this is the area of expertise which many turners lack.
The first tool for keeping wood is oddly enough the chain saw. Green wood is heavy with all the water in it and it needs to be cut into reasonably manageable chunks. Water is the main problem with preserving wood to use later. As the water leaves it builds stress in the wood because wood is not uniform and the water leaves different areas at different speeds leaving some areas wetter than others and cracks will develop as the wood tries to stabilize.
One simple expedient if the wood has arrived in long lengths, say eight feet or more each, is to leave it alone. The ends will crack about four inches deep for most logs. These ends may be cut back with the chain saw and the next section of log used.
A better solution for most turners is to have the wood in shorter lengths. They are much easier to store and to move around as necessary. In this case the ends of the log need to be treated as the water loss is much faster at the ends than it is from the sides. The ends are painted with something that does not stop the wood from losing water but rather evens out the water loss and thus evens out the tensions in the drying wood.
One such product is Anchorseal from UCCoatings company. Developed for the purpose of aiding high end hardwood lumber companies in maintaining good stocks of prime lumber which could be lost to degrade in drying, it turns out to be just what the wood turner needs. Painting the ends of the logs with Anchorseal helps greatly in preventing checking and making sure the wood gets to the lathe in fine shape.
About the Author
Darrell Feltmate is a juried wood turner whose web site, http://aroundthewoods.com , contains detailed information about wood turning for the novice or experienced turner as well as a collection of turnings for your viewing pleasure. You too can learn to turn wood, here is the place to start. Wondering what it looks like? Follow the page links for a free video.
http://aroundthewoods.com
You can easily ask your questions about wood turning at his blog at
http://roundopinions.blogspot.com
as well as comment on any thing related to the web site, this article or other aspects of wood turning, art and craft.
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