"Prometheus" wrote in message
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Hello all,

I went out on Sunday with the bow saw, and cut myself some nice maple
and birch out of some trees that were knocked over when the logging
trucks widened the road in the county forest. Since I don't have a
big stock of cured blanks yet, I've been turning a little of it
sopping wet. I know the standard procedure is to put a coat of sealer
over the roughed-out blank and wait for it to dry out, but I want to
have a few finished pieces as well! I made a little maple bowl
tonight after work, and finished it with a 3lb. cut of shellac, in the
hopes that it may survive.... I have seen a couple of references to
finishing the piece right away, but this is the first time I've tried
this. Did I mess up a perfectly nice little bowl, or is it likely to
survive with the shellac on it to slow down the moisture exchange? If
it does survive, does finishing immediately work on larger pieces as
well, or does it need to have a thin wall?

Thanks for any advice you've got!


"Standard procedure" is anything but an occlusive coating in my house.
Maple looks best without black mildew spots. You really want to get the
moisture content down before anchorsealing or such, or woods with the sap up
can grow some remarkably ugly things. Remember, the ride to the fiber
saturation point is free of cracks or distortion. That's ~30%, with mildew
and fungal growth stopping at ~20%, so plan accordingly.

What's going to happen with the shellac? Don't know. If you cut thin and
spun hard, you took it off the lathe at about 30%. I'd get it out of the
humidity, but not into the sun and hope for the best. Shellac will tolerate
a certain amount of excess water, but it looks milky with the stuff trapped
under.