Hi Neal

Yes Neal you're right, the wood keeps on drying slowly under the wax
emulsion seal, it slows down the drying and it delays and lessens the
splitting, not prevent it.

If trees grew with only heartwood or sapwood and nice evenly annular
growth, then you might be able to air dry those sealed slabs of wood
with very little degrade, luckily we do get all kinds of grain and
beautiful contrasting sap/heartwood, and all of the challenges that go
with it.

So cut and seal the wood quickly and then sell fast is the easiest way
of moving your blanks.

However there is an other more labor and cost intensive way of treating
your wood, and for this I will give you a link to a website you can
peruse at your leisure. (and eat your hearth out for the wood they have
and sell) :-))

The boiling and air drying and then sometimes kiln drying to shorten
the drying time and lessen the amount of degrade has been around for a
while, however most of us rather turn a green piece of wood enjoy the
ease of turning it then either let it warp or let it dry and return it
in a few months/years.

here's the link Neal
http://www.exoticwoodworld.com/

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

neal konneker wrote:
I do not turn bowls (yet) but I recently got a hobby sawmill. Some log
sections are too short or knotty to saw into regular lumber. I hate to
see any beautiful wood go to waste so I am trying to figure out how to saw
these short sections into blanks for ya'll. I have learned I need to cut
out the pith and seal the resulting blanks with anchorseal so they don't
crack. My question now is, do these blanks dry slowly underneath the
anchorseal coating, or is the intent that they remain pretty much green?
If they dry, I assume we are talking years for air drying (in a shop) for
chunks that are several inches thick?

Thank you for your patience.

Neal