Official Luthiers Forum!

There have been some very recent good threads on storing wood. But I have not seen this question addressed.

With the help of a tip from ChuckG I ran into a very good deal on some mahogany lumber. Barry Daniels help me pick some out to buy. Matt Jacobs was kind enough to provide resaw equipment and skills. What a wonderful bunch of friendly helpful luthiers here in the Houston area!! Thanks again guys!!

So, unexpectedly on short notice, I have become the proud owner of some mahogany lumber (mostly 2" thick and 20" to 34" long) and some resawn backs and sides (about 10 sets). The lumber was dried and sitting stored in an non-air conditioned storage shed for about 4+ years before I bought it - and appears very stable.

I intend to use paraffin to seal the ends of the newly resawn wood and sticker it as Matt suggested. But I'm wondering, for pieces just barely long enough, how to remove the paraffin later without leaving stains? Any tips for this? Or is there another sealing material that would be more appropriate allowing easy stain-free removal?

When do you guys seal the ends and when do you not seal them?

Any need to seal 2" thick lumber? (I assume no need to sticker 2" thick lumber, correct?)

My shop is humidity controlled where all the lumber is stored. How long should I wait before starting to build with this already dried mahogany (the pieces stayed nice and straight immediately after resawing).

Thanks for the help.
Ed

Sealing the end grain is only appropriate for green wood. It is definitely not needed on the Mahogany we picked out. That wood is very dry and only needs to stabilize to your shop conditions.

EDIT: Barry was typing faster than me! EDIT

I seal the ends on green lumber only.
Sealing the ends of thin boards (especially as thin as guitar sets) seems unnecessary to me, since the idea of 'sealing' is to try to equalize the shrinkage rate where the ends of the board are drying much faster than the 'inner' portions.
Mahogany is pretty stable in my experience, since all the stuff I see is dry.

Cheers
John

I don't like using wax as an end grain sealer unless there is lots of extra length to remove before you start building.
I use water based contact cement, simply because it is readily available locally. A few coats seems to work very well. There is a product called "End Seal" available. A Google search would find a supplier.

I would sticker all the pieces, regardless of thickness. The thicker it is, the more likely it is to crack & check.

I've read that you need to wait a year for every inch of thickness... If you have a moisture meter, you can easily tell when the wood reaches 6 - 8% moisture content.

I like to coat end grain of hardwoods with Anchorseal, even if the wood is dry. But I don't always do it, and the risk is pretty low.

I do not store most wood in my shop. I think wood benefits from seasoning, and that 'seasoning' means what it sounds like: exposure to climate changes. I usually bring sets into the shop a few months before using them.

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Hi Ed,
I've been keeping an eye on the set that I kept, and it hasn't moved at all since we cut it. So, if you keep them in your shop you shouldn't have to seal the ends.
regarding the billets, I'm sure they are dry, as Barry said. but sealing the ends still couldn't hurt. If you are worried about the parrafin, you could use Anchorseal, titebond ,or shellac. By the way, I've found that the parrafin doesn't penetrate the end grain very far unless it is a very ragged edge.

_________________
Matt Jacobs

"Don't tase me bro"

Don't use wax. Consider latex paint for a sealer, if you use one (NOT oil base paint). If you have some left over paint from a project, it's about free.

Latex paint has been shown in Forest Products lab testing to be closest thing to nothing at all for sealing wood.

Wax has never caused me a problem. I scrape it down to the surface before any sanding, mainly so as not to clog up the sanding drums; also so it won't get heated and spread.

That being said, It's not likely ever to make a difference to dry mahogany whether you seal the ends or not.

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Thanks to all for the help.

Ed

Would this work as a UK equivalent to Anchorseal? http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=22022&name=end+grain&user_search=1&sfile=1&jump=44

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes