Crotch Wood for Blanks?

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donstephan

Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2016
Messages
255
Location
Cincinnati Ohio
Wondering if 3/4" or 1" square blanks from walnut and other (green) crotch areas of log will dry and be stable enough for pen blanks. Air dried crotch figure in boards often is anything but flat and sometimes excessively cracked.
 

JimB

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Messages
4,683
Location
West Henrietta, NY, USA.
Just cut them a little larger than you need so when they dry and warp you can still use them. Cracking is a risk with any wood. There are things you can do to minimize cracking.
 

SDB777

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2010
Messages
6,620
Location
Cabot, Arkansas USA
I cut thousands of wood pen blanks....thousands. There will always be 'loss' of pen blank sized blanks when cutting crotch, twisted grain, or even crosscut....I sort of figure it into how many I want to have available on the website after they have had to time to dry(and then I re-cull them to get rid of defects). Of course, I cull once again to be sure that only good blanks leave.

That said, I do not use anything to keep them from doing what they are going to do. If you only have enough timber(boards) to make a certain number of blanks, and you wish to have 95-100% of the blanks make it to the lathe. You can try sealing the endgrain with wax, anchorseal, or anything like those products to reduce the amount of evaporation through the endgrain.
You can also store the blanks in a 'better location'. Not too hot, not too dry....etc


Scott (have fun, cull them) B
 
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