So I decided to go small with this.  With one of my neighbors handing me 5 birch blanks for about 5 bucks each I was stacked about it.  I sealed them up and today finally while waiting on my new band saw to get here I decided why not I may as well go for it.  I drilled out a hole in the one of the birch blank pieces and mounted the wood worm into the chuck and went for it.  For my first time turning green wood I did not sand the bowl fully on the outside or inside as of yet not sure if I should just let it dry before sanding or not.  But for the first go at it was interesting and I think so far successful.  Interestingly enough the wood worm worked quite well.k  A little bit more confidence in the wood worm screw now at least.  I'm also glad that I didn't have the birch wood piece blow up in my face and it wasn't rotten.

I like turning green wood. 

Do you need to seal the wood again after it is turned?  Or, will just placing it in a paper bag with the shavings do well enough?  I fear that it may crack.  That is really beautiful wood.  

 

8 hours ago, FlGatorwood said:

Do you need to seal the wood again after it is turned?  Or, will just placing it in a paper bag with the shavings do well enough?  I fear that it may crack.  That is really beautiful wood.  

 

You can turn green wood to the finish- size, sanded, etc. It will dry and probably warp some- and yes it might crack. Or you can turn it so the overall thickness is about 1/10 the diameter. Then put it in a bag of shavings to let it finish drying- and yes it might crack. After the wood reaches moisture equilibrium, you finish turning to the final size/thickness. Some turners seal the end grain of the rough turned blank for drying. Some wrap it in plastic wrap. Some use a home made "oven" to speed the drying process. It all boils down to some are gonna crack.

I've tried both the seal the ends and the paper bag method with mixed results. I even experimented with the paraffin method which probably works the best but is messy and takes forever to dry. One method I haven't tried is the propylene glycol method which supposedly works very well. That might be worth a try on the smaller chunks.

Paul

I used to do twice turn on all bowls. First turn to 1/10 of diameter for wall thickness and then in bag with shavings. dump shavings in about 2 weeks and weight twice a week till EMC.

 

Now mostly turn to finish and into a bag til dry. Have never tried sealing a bowl once it has been turned.

On 12/17/2020 at 12:09 AM, FlGatorwood said:

Do you need to seal the wood again after it is turned?  Or, will just placing it in a paper bag with the shavings do well enough?  I fear that it may crack.  That is really beautiful wood.  

 

No you don’t need to seal the wood. I put mine in a cardboard box with shavings for three or four months and the finish turn it. Haven’t had one crack yet.

Well if I get more wood like that I will give that other option of wood shavings in a box a go as well.  I just finished off all the birch blanks and got those turned and put into a box of shavings to finish drying out..

Thank you for all the responses to sealing the wood or not.  I know if I keep a piece of log without removing the pith, it not only checks, but splits down the sides.  So, I always remove the bark and pith.  The man who gave me a 1 hour lesson on turning, turns beautiful bowls and platters.  He always turns it green, then covers completely with Anchor Seal, allows it to air dry in a special cabinet for a number of months before doing the final turn.  He turned about 4 cherry bowls and they are beautiful.