Wood question

Richard338

Richard338

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May 3, 2005
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I just bought a piece of macassar ebony (1"x1"x25"), and a piece of zirocote (1"x3"x29").
They are supposed to be dried, aged, etc, and the ends are waxed. I don't have a dry place to store them and live in a fairly humid city.
Should I:
1) cut them into 1"x1"x5" blocks and put them in ziploc bags?

2) cut them into blocks and coat them with Watco sealer?

Will putting sealer on the unshaped blocks make it harder to shape them later?

any suggestions?

Thanks
 
I'm in an apartment with electric heat (which won't come on for a couple of months). The water tank is in the basement and is public access. My workshop is an unheated attached garage.
 
The warmth from a low watt light bulb in some sort of containter should do the trick. Just make sure it won't cause a fire.
 
If your not going to use them right away I don't see what it would hurt. Melted candle wax or parafin would work just fine.
 
Sealant won't hurt except you'll have to remove it if you decide to have some stabilized. Cutting them to just oversize may not prevent cracks, but it will prevent a large crack from travelling the whole length of the piece.

If they change from their current moisture content, they may deform or split. I believe that plastic wrap or zip lock would keep moisture fairly stable. If they don't need drying it sounds like a good idea to me.

Wood drying, preservation etc is an interesting topic and I haven't seen much of the discussion here. Good post!

Rob!
 
A little latex paint on the ends, nothing on the sides, and that should keep the ends from splitting, as that's where water is lost first.
A box with a light sounds good.
 
Evening Richard, "Dried" Is a term that can cover a wide range of moisture contents. If you are building a shed, a moisture content, of 10 percent would be acceptable. That is the reading you would get, on your moisture meter, if you tested your air dried lumber. You can air dry lumber for years and the
M.C. will not drop below 10 percent. If you want to build a grandfather clock
you want to use lumber that is dried for use in building furniture. That type of lumber has usually been air dried for about a year, then put in a lumber dryer, which will take it down to around 41/2 to 51/2 percent M.C. Since, I figure the knife you will build will tend to be more like a piece of furniture than a shed I would lean more towards the latter. When drying lumber, slow is good. Appling heat is bad, unless it is inside a lumber drier where both humidity and temp. are closely controlled. If the wood you have purchased has been air dried, no matter how long, my reccomendation would be to seal the ends with polyurathane or any like moisture inhibiter and keep it at a stable temp out of the sunlight. Anyone who has a lumber drier will have a moisture meter with which to check the moisture content of the wood you have purchased. Imho, the only wood to use on a knife handle is wood that has been stabilized. It cost a few dollars a handle to stabilize and makes them last indefinately. Fred
 
Fred,
I got the wood from www.thewoodbox.com they are in Canada (like myself) and supply various woods for hobbies including knifemaking. I'm not sure how dry they claim it is.

I'm following the "step-by-step knifemaking; David Boye" procedure where he recommends Watco Danish oil as a sealer. I also have a gallon of nitrocellulose (NC) laquer to try as a final finish.

Are you saying that this method is not good enough for lasting results? Should I "bite the bullet" and get the whole lot stabilized?
One of my knives will be a bread knife, and while it certainly won't go in the dishwasher, it might be used a lot and be around moisture quite often.
I guess if I do go with stabilizing I shouldn't coat it at all.

Thanks for all the replies
 
Richard338 said:
Fred,
I got the wood from www.thewoodbox.com they are in Canada (like myself) and supply various woods for hobbies including knifemaking. I'm not sure how dry they claim it is.

I'm following the "step-by-step knifemaking; David Boye" procedure where he recommends Watco Danish oil as a sealer. I also have a gallon of nitrocellulose (NC) laquer to try as a final finish.

Are you saying that this method is not good enough for lasting results? Should I "bite the bullet" and get the whole lot stabilized?
One of my knives will be a bread knife, and while it certainly won't go in the dishwasher, it might be used a lot and be around moisture quite often.
I guess if I do go with stabilizing I shouldn't coat it at all.:thumbup: Wood is considered a "live" material. Even after it is cut and dried it will continually want to move: check, cup, twist, warp. As you bring the moisture content down it has less of a tendacy to do these things. When you stabilize wood you eliminate most all of these possibilites. When you are working with woods that have a great deal of figure in them you are also working with woods that have a great deal of stress. When you see those trucks on the road hauling logs that have the ends painted over you can bet they will be processed into a furniture grade lumber. They cover the ends to slow down the moisture migration from the logs. Most of the moisture in a log leaves via the ends. If you invision a log as being a large pile of straws you can kind of see how this works. Coat the ends of your wood and the moisture will migrate slowly, which will give you less warping etc. If you have never used stabilized wood you will find that it finishes to such a degree you rarely need anything but wax on the surface to look its best. Fred
Click to expand...
 
most woodworker shops carry a product called peg. its an acronim for some chemical,, don't ask me what. we woodcarvers use it to stabalize wood for carving so it won't split an crack later. im sure this will do the job for you.
second thing is this wood is going to be used in the humidity you live in. it should achieve a natural balance in that humidity. protecting it from ambiant humidity would allow it to change shape when it finaly gets used . could cause splitting or warpage of the finished product.
 
Cut in pieces the size you are going to need, have it stablized and your worries are over. :)
 
Fred.Rowe said:
Evening Richard, "Dried" Is a term that can cover a wide range of moisture contents. If you are building a shed, a moisture content, of 10 percent would be acceptable. That is the reading you would get, on your moisture meter, if you tested your air dried lumber. You can air dry lumber for years and the
M.C. will not drop below 10 percent. If you want to build a grandfather clock
you want to use lumber that is dried for use in building furniture. That type of lumber has usually been air dried for about a year, then put in a lumber dryer, which will take it down to around 41/2 to 51/2 percent M.C. Since, I figure the knife you will build will tend to be more like a piece of furniture than a shed I would lean more towards the latter. When drying lumber, slow is good. Appling heat is bad, unless it is inside a lumber drier where both humidity and temp. are closely controlled. If the wood you have purchased has been air dried, no matter how long, my reccomendation would be to seal the ends with polyurathane or any like moisture inhibiter and keep it at a stable temp out of the sunlight. Anyone who has a lumber drier will have a moisture meter with which to check the moisture content of the wood you have purchased. Imho, the only wood to use on a knife handle is wood that has been stabilized. It cost a few dollars a handle to stabilize and makes them last indefinately. Fred
Click to expand...
Fred wrote so much good information I thought it should be repeated. :D

The only thing I will add is buy a good ($100+) moisture meter.
 
Thanks for all the info guys.

Chuck, you said in another post that thick blocks of ebony can't be stabilized. Does that apply to my Macassar ebony? How well does Zirocote stabilize? Thanks again.
 
If the Macassar ebony scales are .375 or less it should work. Most of the different types of ebony have the same grain and density. We are are drying some asian ebony for stabilizing. It should be dry in a few months . . . . . or years. ;)

I don't know if Zirocote will stabilize. I'll get more information and post a response.
 
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