I need to dry 100 palmetto pen blanks... how..?

[redfishsc]

I know how do dry blanks, I've dried hundreds of them, just **not all at once*** lol. Normally I have figured stuff or punky stuff, so I soak them in methanol overnight and then pack them tight in newspaper for a month. Seems to work well.


I can't do this with the 100 palmetto blanks I milled up today (NOT a fun endeavor I tell ya!). Interesting wood, looks just like the palm listed in CSUSA's catalog. Strange tree. The inner part we'd normally call "heartwood" is very spongy and punky but gets progressively harder as you get closer to the outer edges....yet the wood looks identical regardless of the hardness. I kept only the hard stuff as I had enough on my hands without trying to do something to rescue the softer part (resin stabilizing would have done wonders for it.... no time for that though when there's plenty of hard stuff ready). Gonna find out if the soft stuff makes good kindling.


I may offer some for sale but I have to check SC laws on selling palmetto wood since it's our state tree and I seem to recall there being some sort of regulation on it. I may just be stuck with 100 nice pen blanks what a shame!


So how would you dry 100 of them? I need to get them safely dry by, say, the first of October. Has anyone dried a palm-type tree before? Do they split/check badly? I have a few of them laying in the open in our sultry-hot shop too see what happens to them.

Simplicity and cheap are the virtues I'm after....

 

[Dario]

Nice stuff!!!

Not sure how you can safely dry this...some palm that I tried checks so I ended up applying anchorseal on them then stacked them alternating criss-cross ala tic-tac-toe

 

[mrplace]

Where can I buy anchorseal?

 

[Dario]

https://www.uccoatings.com/

but you can get similar items at Woodcraft...but more expensive.

 

[redfishsc]

Thanks for the witness, Dario. You just never know with these quasi-wood natural materials. Hard to describe until you've resawed a log of it yourself.


I'm extreme-condition drying a few blanks now in the oven at around 200F just to see what happens. I hope they don't stink!
I also have a few at the work oven (well, the work shop, might as well be an oven) sitting over the weekend, we'll see what they look like Mon. morning.

There are several other ~48" logs at my source, heavens do I want them so bad! I just haven't the time to go get them and mill them up.

 

[redfishsc]

Dario, forgot to ask, did you completely anchorseal them or just seal the endgrain up? How did it work?


Mrplace,

Call your local woodturning clubs, if any. Ask them if they bulk buy the stuff. I can get it for several dollars cheaper per gallon by getting it from them rather than from a distributor. Most of them buy a 55 gallon drum and divvy it up, at least that's what they do locally.

 

[Dario]

Care to sell me a flat rate box sized piece (5.5" x 8" x 11")?

 

[Dario]

Most wood I deal with I don't even anchorseal once milled down to pen blank size.

Some may need the ends sealed but others rquire a full coverage. You will have to try and learn from what you got. If you can, experiment with just a few pieces. Put the rest inside a box for now until you learn how to deal with them properly. No need wasting 100 blanks!!![:0]

 

[redfishsc]

Dario, you wouldn't want a piece that size, only 1/3 of it would be useable. There is a two-inch(ish) band of hard wood that is the outer ring, and the stuff gets progressivly soft/spongy toward the center. Very wierd. The outer stuff seems hard as oak, an inch inward you're looking at poplar, another inch you're into basswood, and another inch you're talking cork. Oddly, you cannot tell a difference visibly. Only by fingernail tests, lol.

I milled the whole thing up today into 1"+ by 5.5" blanks, which was the only size I could effectively mill this log up into. I have to check with SC regulations before I sell them since this is the state tree and I think they have some sort of regulation on selling the wood from them. Once I find out, I'll email ya.

BTW, this is some "historic" wood. Palmetto logs were used back in the Revolution at Fort Moultrie (40 mins from my house) as a block against british cannon balls. The trees were stacked upright around a large earth levy, behind which was the Fort (it looks like a big hill built up around the fort, veneered by big palmetto logs on the front). The Brit's cannon balls literally bounced off the Fort.

This wood is NOT a part of that original wood nor is it from the Fort, but it is from the Charleston area.

 

[write-n-style]

http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=1128&SearchTerms=microwave,drying

 

[smoky10]

You can use a micro-wave oven to dry them or a food dehydrator. I have used the micro-wave to dry a bunch of blanks. Just put it on high for a short period, 45secs to 1min at a time. I have never used the dehydrator.

 

[redfishsc]

Lol, I enjoy being married, smoky, I'm not sure how long that would last if I were to try that with this quantity of blanks, particularly when they smell like palmetto. Not quite a "stink" but certainly smells punky.

 

[rgundersen]

Seems like if you wanted to do the microwave / dehydrator / or even a toaster oven on low and the front open a bit (similar to the dehydrator) you could find a cheap one at a garage sale or just go to big lots or something similar in the area and do it outside or in the garage. Would seriously cut the time drying the blanks.

Basically making you own kiln drier just pen blank sized not 2x4 sized.

For that matter as I think about it some mdf aluminum foil and a 100 watt light bulb and fixture would probably make enough of a kiln effect to dry things in a couple days to a week. Or go even faster and find a cheap heat lamp to go in the regular light socket instead of the 100w...anyway lots of variations on the light fixture you could use.

No I havent tried any of these things but seems worth a shot after looking at some of the other threads.

 

[smoky10]

I bought my micro-wave at a yard sale for $5.00 and it has worked great. R. Gunderson described a basic kiln that will probably do what you want with no problem. Add a small fan on one end and a few small holes on the other and that will speed up the process.

 

[Dario]

I just registered at Craigslist (thanks Ben) and watch whatever is offered. Got me a free microwave that way. It is not perfect, (lights are out) but works great! [^]