Wet Marblewood

[lwalper]

So I let (yeah, right) my wife accompany me into the local Woodcraft. They didn't have what I was looking for (a particular pen kit) so I was ready to leave ... $50 later ... I walked out with this nice piece of marblewood and some other stuff

The wood is heavily wax coated and seems to be heavy for its size. If my math is right it seems to be about 20% moisture content. I know it's a very dense wood and quite heavy anyhow, but the ratings for pounds/cf for 12% moisture content calculates out to about 20% for this chunk.

I've scraped off most of the wax -- how long is it going to take to dry out for turning? Should I cut it up and rough turn it to approximate shape or let it dry out a bit first? Just don't want it to end-check too much :frown:

 

[Skie_M]

Cut it to proper size, and hopefully that will be small enough that you can "kiln" dry it at home ....


For example, if you're making pen blanks. Those will easily fit into a toaster oven. Set it to 150 degrees, perhaps an hour for duration, let them cool overnight in your shop. (Don't leave it running unattended, though ... be there in the shop just in case something happens.)

Also, don't mess up your wife's favorite appliance .... if need be, pick yourself one up for cheap at a yard sale, or better yet, buy your wife a new one and just commandeer the old one for your shop.

 

[lwalper]

Wow, that's a quick reply!!

I've got a food dehydrator that could be set at 95 degrees or so. I was just wondering about drying unevenly and causing it to split. I've overly dried some stuff in it before. The outside seems to dry to a crisp leaving the inside moist and the piece curls like a pretzel.

 

[MikeinSC]

If you dry wood too fast, it could crack on you.
Any waxed woods I've bought, I've let acclimate in my garage for quite some time before using them.

 

[keithbyrd]

A good quick way to "Dry" pen blanks is to soak them in DNA (DeNatured Alcohol) for a day and air out for a day - good to go!
I keep a bucket ready to soak a few pen blanks all the time!

 

[KenV]

Three choices

I usually rough turn seal with anchor seal and dry on a shelf. Paper bag optional.

Can thin turn to final thickness in one non-stop adventure

Let dry slowly and then turn.

Use the 2nd choice if you have practiced thin turning on free wood. The wood moves as it dries and gets interesting shapes, but easy to lose a a piece while getting experienced.

 

[CREID]

I have bought waxed bowl blanks before. I just cut them up into pen blanks and set them on the shelf. By the time I finally remember they are there (a few months), they are dry.
Just my 2 1/2 cents.

Curt

 

[low_48]

That stuff is dense, don't get it close to 95 degrees for months! No idea what you plan on turning, so I can't give you any advice on rough turning. Put it on the floor of the basement for a while since you just took off the wax. No two trees are the same, so your calculation based on density numbers is likely to not be that accurate.

 

[lwalper]

Thought I'd make a couple (maybe 3?) of shallow bowls out of it. Get it round by bandsawing off the corners (pen blanks:biggrin:, finials?). The first pic there is the end grain, the second is side grain.

 

[Skie_M]

Ahh, bowl blanks, is it? You can turn them while green (still lots of water content) with just a little planning.

Make sure your thicknesses (of the walls) are at least 1 inch. You then boil the pre-turned blank in water for 1 hour for every inch of thickness, after which you allow the bowl to cool to room temp. Then, you pack the bowl in the wood shavings that came off it, in a paper bag or something that permits air to "breath" through it, allowing the moisture content to drop naturally.

Every week or so, you will want to "turn the bowl over" as well as shuffle the wood shavings, to prevent mold and fungal growth .... after a few months, you will want to start checking moisture readings on the bowl.

When the moisture readings don't go down anymore from week to week, you can re-chuck it on the lathe and true up your tenon, then chuck the trued tenon and turn the bowl to final thickness walls and finish it normally.


Alternatively is the option to create a "warped wood" bowl. You turn the bowl to finished thickness while the wood is still wet, and then you finish it in a water permeable finish, so that the water still in the wood can leave. Finally, after the wood is dry, you coat it with a water impermeable finish to prevent further warpage or water damage. As the wood dries, various factors will make the wood shrink much more in one direction than in others. You may end up with an oval shaped bowl, an egg shaped bowl, or even a peanut shaped bowl. Several odd shapes are possible and quite interesting, but the chances of a bowl cracking or breaking as it dries are quite a bit higher.


Your plan to round your blanks and use the cutoffs for pen blanks and finials is perfectly fine. You can kiln dry those as several of us have previously mentioned. If they crack, just cut round the cracks and use what you can.