Why are they?

[PeterS]

Why are some wood turning blanks covered in wax?
Is it because they are still wet?

[PAH1]

To stop the blank from splitting, moisture goes out of the end grain faster than long grain and you get bad dry related shrinkage problems if you do not do this. Yes many blanks that have had this done are green, however that depends on who is selling them and many are supplied dry like that.

[PeterS]

Thans for that, another of lifes mysteries solved.

[Little Festo]

A friend of mine got a stack of myrtle etc from tassie. The blanks are fully covered with wax, totally sealed. It would appear that there is little/no chance of the timber losing any moisture at all. Is that normal to seal blanks thatway? I know endgrain should be sealed plus 25mm or so around the edge.

Any comments??

Peter

[PAH1]

A friend of mine got a stack of myrtle etc from tassie. The blanks are fully covered with wax, totally sealed. It would appear that there is little/no chance of the timber losing any moisture at all. Is that normal to seal blanks thatway? I know endgrain should be sealed plus 25mm or so around the edge.


Depends on the supplier, but it really does mean that you need to green turn it. They will dry eventually but at a very slow rate. It also depends on what has been used to do the sealing, I hear from reasonably reliable sources that the wax emulsion type sealants are less effective at sealing and so the blanks sealed with this type are likely to dry even if totally covered (which is what I do).