Sealing Wood Blank Ends after turning

[MRDucks2]

Now achieving a finish I am happy with. However, noticed that an American Patriot made with Curupay wood that cracked and fell out of my truck and lay in the grass over night (yeah, yeah, I know) had the CA finish begin to separate at the cracks (expected) but also to some extent at the ends next to the metal parts.
I ensure I get good coverage to the ends, but often need to sand the excess build-up back for a good fit. Obviously I am exposing wood in the process. Do you seal or otherwise treat the ends of the turned blanks before assembly to help prevent this?


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[Dalecamino]

Thanks for reminding me Mike! I used to put a drop of thin CA on each end of wood blanks AFTER trimming them down to the tube. The wood soaked it right up. After turning the barrels, I would stand them up on a piece of 320 and lightly sand in a circle. I'm sure I learned this from someone else here on the forum about 9 years ago. Sometime ago when I took a break, I forgot that step when I went back to turning. :redface:

 

[mark james]

For burls and segmented blanks that I am worried about, I usually coat the inside of the drilled blank with thin CA, then redrill if the tube will not go in easily. I also glue in my tubes with 2 part epoxy. The thought is to stabilize the wood that is closest to the tube, not just the outside edge. Just my method.

And, I use a Polyurethane finish, not CA. CA is beautiful, but unforgiving with moisture expansion/contraction of wood blanks, or drops. I believe Poly has a bit of flex.

And as Chuck mentioned - yes, don't forget the ends.