Drying Green Wood for Turning


Josiah Brown

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I am a 16 year old woodworker from Fort Worth, Texas and I have been turning for about 2.5 years.  In the past, I have bought all of my turning blanks from the store and this has turned out to be extremely expensive.  Needless to say, I am in school most of the year and I do not have a steady income, so it seems most practical for me to learn how to season my own wood.  The other day I found some some logs on the side of the road that had been cut that morning and took the opportunity.  I'm pretty sure that it was American Elm.  I cut the logs into turning blanks and I need to know the best way of seasoning these blanks.  I have read several different articles online but I am still a bit confused.  How long should I dry them out for and is it true that if I rough turn these blanks into bowls, they will be reading for finishing within the next six weeks?  Also, is it best to wrap the roughed out bowls in newspaper or should I seal them with something?  Any help would be greatly appreciated! -Josiah Brown

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Welcome to the party, Josiah! Not a turner myself, but I read a lot of guys saying that green wood turns much easier, so they rough out the blanks green, then let them dry, and finish the turning after a month or two. Popular methods of controlling the drying process include burying the blank in a container of shavings, or loosly sealing it in a plastic garbage bag. The idea is to keep the moisture migrating out at a slow and steady pace to prevent cracking. In any case, some warping is to be expected, so don't turn the green stock too close to final dimensions.

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As already mentioned, how you cut the blanks is as important (if not more) than how you dry them.  It's important that when you turn green blanks (wet) that you leave a generous about of thickness to work with for finish turning.  As it drys it will warp significantly.  I typically won't go thinner than about a 1/2" wall on a 6-8 diameter bowl.  The smaller the bowl, the thinner you can go, the larger, the thicker.  

One important thing to remember is that turning is much more of an art than a science, and more so than traditional furniture type woodworking.  You can do everything right, and still end up with firewood!  There are a lot of "rules of thumb" for drying, but they are about 80% accurate at their best, because each blank can be so significantly different than another.  So don't get discouraged if your first few don't work out.  

My preference for process is to rough out the bowl, brown bag with sawdust from the roughing (this is an important thing that is often overlooked).  If you use shop dust from kiln dried lumber, it can accelerate the drying causing cracking.  If you use the dust from roughing it will slow the process slightly (since it too is wet), but prevent a lot of cracking.  I typically leave a medium size bowl in the brown bag for 8-10 weeks.  6 weeks is possible, but runs the risk of additional movement after finish.  It can be a neat affect, but if that isn't what you are going for, it can also be frustrating.  

My best advice for any new turner is to be patient.  You can go from blank to finished project in a few hours with kiln dried lumber but the process is not nearly as enjoyable.  Get into a pattern of roughing out a few bowls at a time and then set them aside for several weeks.  I found doing 4-6 blanks each weekend for about a month got me into a pattern where I had plenty of roughed drying blanks to work with when I wanted a finished product.  From there I try to rough 2 blanks for everyone I use.  This does slowly build up your inventory but also accounts for the random blank that ultimately ends up in the fire pile.  If your workflow is intended to start with a blank for a bowl straight through to a finished product, you are going to find the whole thing frustrating.  There are just too many "oh shoot" moments in turning.  So plan for them and it can really be a great experience.  

Edited by Chris H
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