Preparing Green Wood for Bowls

aches n pains

I'm new to preparing green wood as bowl blanks but am really excited about the possibilities.

A friend of mine just gave me several pieces cut from Ash, Cherry and Wormy Maple. The original pieces were about 22 inches in diameter. I have cut out the pith and cut the logs into the sections I would like to dry.

A couple of questions.

1. These pieces had been down for some time (maybe a month) and had begun to show radial cracking on the ends. Should I cut back the piece as deep as the cracks go or leave the existing cracks, Anchorseal the ends of the pieces and let them dry. Again, I removed about 4" from the middle of the pieces including the pith.

2. Which surfaces should I Anchorseal. When we mill dimensional stock I just seal the ends of the stock before stickering and drying. Should I do the same for these pieces or should I seal multiple surfaces?

Really appreciate any help. There are some beautiful bowls in there somewhere.

Thanks,

Doug (Aches n Pains)

Leif Raukleiv

Hello Dough.
Welcome as woodturner! Such pieces should be turned twice. First time green, roughly turned with a thickness about an inch or a bit more for bigger bowls. Then use some sealant in the ends and let them dry slowly. After some months or more they may be put back into the lathe for final turning. Turning green wood is much easier than dry, gives less dust and you do'nt need to sharpen the tools so often.
If you choose to dry the pieces before turning, you should seal the ends. If you seal all surfaces it will not dry at all, or at least very slowly. That may cause darker wood, a start of rotting. Another possibility is to let the whole slab dry in one piece and cut away cracked pieces in the ends.

You may find some information in this thread:
From burl to bowl.

Leif.

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