fresh wood

I am cutting down 2 bradford pear trees soon and was wondering what to do with the logs so I can turn them in the future. I have seen some stuff you can paint on them? will house paint do the same thing, may be mastic (used to coat ac ducts). Oh yea that's if bradford pear trees are worth turning.

Thanks
Jason White

latex paint will work
but you need end grain sealer
welcome to the vortex
bradford turns nice but it dose split
fred

Jason,

Lot's use just latex, but from my experience a true end grain sealer would be the way to go. Just keep in mind if you split the logs in half and remove the pith, you have less cracking going on as well. When sealing a whole log, just coat the ends, and any exposed limb take offs. When sealing a split log, coat the ends then come around the corner about an inch or so on to the now exposed face grain as well. If they are good size logs, splitting them in half will speed your dry time drastically.

As for bradford pear, I love turning it. I find that it can have some good characteristics buried inside. It may look a little bland or tan in color when first turn, but usually darkens up well within 6 months. Nothing beats free wood.

is there somewhere locally I can get the sealer?

The other option is to turn it wet. Rough it oversized then put it up in a paper bag to dry. It will be ready to finish out in a couple of months, wait 6 months to be sure. The normal recommendation is to rough it to 10% of the outside diameter. A 10 in bowl should be roughed to about a 1 in thickness.

You may lose a few pieces, but the success rate is usually pretty good. When you pull the dry item out of the bag, it will have warped, but hopefully not cracked. The purpose of the bagging is to slow the drying process to minimize stress on the piece from the difference in shrinkage of with the grain and against the grain. Be sure and remove the pith (the very center of the log) either before turning, or when roughing out. Pieces tend to crack around the pith.

Good Luck, and enjoy your wood.

The closest I know of would be Man Tool and Supply in Columbia. I need to get some myself, almost out here. I'm heading up that way around the 18th of the month, if the wife allows a pit stop i'll be picking some up.

I actually prefer to turn green (freshly cut) wood.   Not that it is not without its many failures, because it is, but you can get some very interesting results from turning green wood that warps and changes shape.

There is a book written by Michael O'Donnell titled: "TURNING GREEN WOOD" that has useful tips for successfully turning wet wood. It includes diagrams for planning your workpiece from logs crotches & limbs.  CHECK IT OUT!


Sincerely,

Scott H.