Cut some blanks, did I seal properly?
David
>I live in the Buffalo, NY area. Last week we had a late winter storm that took down a lot of trees. I benefitted with a couple pieces of white birch, one piece of unknown (might be beech...), and one that the guy told me was "thorn apple", which I confirmed when I fell with most of my weight and stopped the fall with the base of my palm and long thin needle.
I'm still novice and short a few useful tools, so I cut bowl blanks by hand, with a bow saw. Today I am a man.
The blanks were cut as follows: Took a section of log maybe 12 inches tall. Cut it lengthwise with the bow saw, such that I've got two half round pieces. Then I cut lengthwise again, parallel to the other lengthwise cut. Lastly, I tipped off the corners so I know it will fit on my lathe, and instead of having the roughing gouge going BAM BAM BAM BAM as the piece spins, it will now go bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam.
Questions:
1) Did I cut these properly (meaning, should I have made the lengthwise cut down the middle, or should I have gone off to the side a little to keep the center of the tree trunk out of the blank).
2) When using the anchor seal, should I apply to "all exposed surfaces", or only the top and bottom (if you were looking at the blank in the orientation it had when in the tree) to cover end grain.
Hope this explains it well enough. I ended up with five blanks and a few log-pieces that I just sealed the end of, for a rainy day when I can lift my arms.
Thanks -
David B.
