Hi
I have read two conflicting reports on protecting roughed out bowls. one said put the sealer on the out side of the bowl and let air dry and the other said seal the inside.
Which is the correct or best one for drying.
TIA
Mark

I like to seal the outside and for that matter, just the endgrain.

--
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS Canada
www.aroundthewoods.com

"Sniperborg" wrote in message
...

Hi
I have read two conflicting reports on protecting roughed out bowls.
one said put the sealer on the out side of the bowl and let air dry and
the other said seal the inside.
Which is the correct or best one for drying.
TIA
Mark


--
Sniperborg

Sealing techniques vary widely and range from shoving the roughed bowl in a
paper bag to sealing the entire bowl inside and out with Anchorseal. I have
had good luck with all of them for the species I use but the safest way is
to coat the whole bowl. Unfortunately, this extends the drying time
considerably.

The most crack prone area is the end-grain so seal it if you are going to
seal. I don't know if it makes much difference whether it is the inside or
outside if you are only going to do one surface but intuitively the outside
does seem the better candidate.

You may find as you build up an inventory of roughed bowls that you can
afford to allow a slower drying time and will want to ensure that real nice
piece won't crack and thus coat it completely.

Some woods, like apple and other fruits, can be very prone to cracking and
IMO these should benefit from a good sealing.

billh

Hi Mark

You got some good advice from Darrell and Billh, in my experience the
cracking start on the outside of the bowls, so you seal there.
However it is not a "fit all cases" depending on a lot of differed
conditions like, temperature, humidity, air circulation or the lack of
it, wood species, wall thickness and evenness of thickness, abrupt shape
change and sapwood presence, etc., you might not have to seal or totally
seal, keep it in a paper bag or wrapped up in paper, just to give the
wood time to loose the moisture evenly and change shape slowly without
splitting.
Of course there are those that try to drown the wood in alcohol or LDD
G I duck now.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

Sniperborg wrote:

Hi
I have read two conflicting reports on protecting roughed out bowls.
one said put the sealer on the out side of the bowl and let air dry and
the other said seal the inside.
Which is the correct or best one for drying.
TIA
Mark

Cracking is due to one section of the wood drying faster than another
and shrinking faster as it dries (usually outside vs inside). Generally
the faster you dry the wood the more potential there is for cracking,
but there are vast differents in the type of wood. Apple for example
can begin to crack minutes after the tree is cut down.
Generally I take the safer route and coat the whole block / blank /
bowl and give it lots of time. Many people have developed methods to
speed things up and you can find plenty of them at sites like this or
on internet searches.
Brad
hardingpens.com

"Sniperborg" wrote in message
...

Hi
I have read two conflicting reports on protecting roughed out bowls.
one said put the sealer on the out side of the bowl and let air dry and
the other said seal the inside.
Which is the correct or best one for drying.

The inside of the heart up bowl does not split because it is under
compression. The cracks can't open. That's why you can (should?) protect
only the outside, where the wood is under tension, and capable of rapidly
opening once a weakness develops. Coating the interior would only lengthen
the time to dry.

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fp...tr113/ch03.pdf Figure 3-3
represents this in picture.

If you look at a bowl which has dried, you'll notice that the sides have
pulled in a touch, and dropped a bunch. Both of these produce compression.

Guys,

FWIW Bill Grumbine seals the inside and outside OF THE END GRAIN part of a
green bowl. States the objective is to slow it down to the rate of the side
grain parts.

TomNie


"Sniperborg" wrote in message
...

Hi
I have read two conflicting reports on protecting roughed out bowls.
one said put the sealer on the out side of the bowl and let air dry and
the other said seal the inside.
Which is the correct or best one for drying.
TIA
Mark


--
Sniperborg

"Tom Nie" wrote in message
...
Guys,

FWIW Bill Grumbine seals the inside and outside OF THE END GRAIN part of a
green bowl. States the objective is to slow it down to the rate of the
side grain parts.


Which makes little difference. As you may notice in your firewood stack,
end checks run about 1 1/2" deep before they can no longer draw water from
the interior. Unless you've got someplace on that bowl more than an inch
and a half from being endgrain, and that'd leave out most designs, you might
as well consider the entire to be endgrain for your drying calculations.

As noted, insides don't count, merely adding to the mildew problem if you're
not careful. Fill a bucket half full of sand and spin it vigorously to
bring it up the sides a bit, then plunge your finger in the center. Notice
it closes immediately.

Now heap a cone up in the center and plunge your finger in. Not only does
the hole stay, it may cause a further avalanche. Pretty good analogy for
what the incredible average bowl does.