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I did a check in the search , however I didnt find a answer that I was looking for . Maybe someone here can assist me .

Does anyone else out there cut and resaw there own woods . I am sure Im not the only one.

What I am looking for is what products people use keep the wood from spillting while air drying ?

I have heard " wax " works ? However im sure there is somthing on the market I dont know about

any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

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i have heard of shellac being used to seal the end grain, im sure wax works just as good.

Wax does work. Lee Valley sells a product for treating the ends of boards. I have yet to use it but I'm sure anything that will seal the end and slow down the drying helps. I did paint the ends of some logs one time with oil paint before milling. I think it helped. I'm not that ambitious any more. If I cut an 8" board and it splits then I guess it will end up as two 4" .

Happy New Year!

A common end grain sealer is called "Anchor Seal" which is sold at Woodcraft and alot of other places as well. It is designed specifically for sealing log ends and end grain of green lumber

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John Ressler

anchor seal thanks ill check into that . I figured there had to be somthing

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Rockler carries an end sealer as well.

I have a band mill (25hp Champion model), and I use Anchorseal to coat the ends of my sawlogs to prevent cracking. There's not a lot you can do about face checking, but I have seen a huge difference in the amount of end grain cracking between boards that were or were not sealed properly. The company which sells Anchorseal is U.C. Coatings at this site:

http://www.uccoatings.com/

cheers

John

thanks everyone and thanks for the link , i will be looking into it next week . Have a great 1st

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

We've been using the Lee Valley Log Sealer for years with great success (tonewood and lumber) and we do a LOT of wood. It's a little pricey but actually goes a long way.

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

I was watching one of these cable channel shows how its made or one of the similar type shows and they were at some type of wood manufacturing place and they were using plain old white latex paint to seal the end grain. I use shellac out of a can.

I tried it and it does seem to seal the engrain and prevent checking but found the pigment gets sucked into the endgrain.. Wouldn't do it again.

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

If you are harvesting trees and need a lot of Anchor Seal, yuo can buy it directly from UC Coatings.

~$40 for 2 gallons or $60 for 5 gallons sure beats $12/Qt at the woodworking stores, and support from UC Coatings is excellent.

-jd

Latex paint is a poor moisture barrier. The persistence of its use shows how people will just keep doing what they saw someone else do. That, and that it's cheap.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I just collect old bits of candle and when i have enough i melt it into a block. It sits in a metal pan and when i need to do some sealing i heat it up and junk the wood in.

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Disappointment is an empty box full of expectation

Our first batch of wood (ever) was done with some sort of melting pot and bars of parafin.. It definately works but with any kind of volume the wax pot is something of a fire/burn hazzard.

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

Some time ago I bought a bunch of spruce sets from a vendor who very generously sealed the end grain, and 1/2" over, with parafin. Even after scraping the goo off the ends it still managed to clog and ruin two belts on my belt sander.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I have had the same problem as Laurent with wax. I think it is not the best choice for sealing of endgrain. The tar based sealers are much better. They harden nicely, don't soak in and scrape off fine. I like to seal the ends before resawing, let them dry and then cut. This leaves the surfaces completely clean and the ends cut off anyway.

+1 Anchor Seal

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Hibdon Hardwood, Inc.
http://www.hibdonhardwood.com
1410 N. Broadway
Saint Louis, Missouri 63102
314.621.7711

I was kinda going to stay out of this one because good advice has already been given. But I think I will add my experience.

For Spruce, especially Sitka and it's hybrids, I do NOT seal the ends, except when I am doing things like contra bass blocks and the like. I used to seal mandolin and guitar archtop sets but I rarely even do that anymore. The reason is that by far the largest volume of moisture in a coniferous tree is in the sapwood and in spruce that is the outer layer (about 2" in a 4 foot diametre tree). Once that is removed (which is done for Sitka and it's hybrids because it dries a different colour but not for Euro, Engelmann or Red because it dries the same colour and they need the width) the remaining wood is quite dry already, it is no longer "alive" in the tree. I don't have issues with checking or splitting if drying is done with care and I have a schedule for that. For deciduous trees, if they are being processed into back and side sets and they are straight grained, ie not stump wood, then again I find that no end sealer is required and there will be no degradation. For thicker pieces (billets, neckblanks, etc, I use Lee Valley Log End Sealer which is just Anchor Seal repackaged.

For drying, the tops are stickered with 1/4" thick stickers and placed in a heated environment with box fans blowing air through the stacks. I will be building a "kiln" later this year but it will be the same thing just with more control, fans, a small heater, a hygrometer and a dehumidifer in an insulated box.

I agree with Howard, latex paint is poor, it does do a bit but once you do a bit of this stuff you will soon find what I have found, that in most cases none is needed and the best method is to cut the wood as close to size (make it is small as possible) and control drying (remove surface moisture and allow the process to proceed slowly). For a precaution if you are still concerned, use anchor seal, a gallon goes a long way!

Shane

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Canada