Terry: You've gotten GREAT advice from all! Mark Blabaum's comment on letting your handle "rest" before final sanding and finishing can be critical. Holds true for any wood, but open pore woods like Big Leaf Maple Burl and Black Ash Burl are some of the worst offenders. They can absorb moisture like a sponge under the right circumstances and give you fits. If you have an area where you can let the wood "rest" and apply a very low heat at the same time to reduce any excess moisture is great this time of year with the lower humidity depending on where you live. I have a small wall mounted "kiln" (metal, fire proof) that I use for this purpose. A 75 watt bulb is the heat source and gets up to about 100 degrees. Every little bit helps. As a wood worker for 35+ years and a self proclaimed "wood freak", if you follow the advice from the guys on the forum, you'll be in great shape. ENJOY!!
Steve Kincaid

Terry, part of the solution rests with the moisture content of the wood used. If you cut your own wood, age it in a dry place or use a kiln. Commercial woods are usually kiln dried. The second part of the solution is to seal the wood from moisture, you've been given some good advise here. As for myself I usually use hand rubbed coats of tru oil or in the case of very oily type woods such as coca bolo I have used permagloss. Recenly I've seen some of the wood turned and sealed by Mark with CA and have been very impressed, I'm going to try that next.

Sam and Steven, thanks for the advice. You have all given me great ideas and I no longer have a problem with un-stablized wood. I can seal it from moisture and make sure it is dried. I will be using the techniques I have learned here.

You know........this is a great board and you all have provided expert advice for me. I want to take the time to personally thank each and everyone of you for taking the time to help me and you guys really came through..........................thanks again

Happy New Year and may the new year bring each and everyone on this board a prosperous, healthy and safe new year..........

Sincerely

Terry Henson

Terry,
When wood is stabilized it increases in weight by a considerable amount depending on the species. For this reason I prefer wood that isn't stabilized for grips. I cut green juniper and dry it by sealing the end grain and allowing it to dry. It is difficult to arrive at an exact percentage when arriving at an optimum wood to moisture content of a piece of dry wood. The local humidity conditions will cause that ratio to vary slightly as the humidity varies. For that reason I use a postal scale to weigh my individual blanks during the drying process and record the weights on each blank at random times during that period. When the blanks quit losing weight and actually show some plus or minus fluctuation over a few days I have found them to be have enough stability to turn. Once they are finished and sealed by one of the methods described here you should have little problem with swelling or checking.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

Thanks Stan...I did notice immediately that the 4 handles I turned with non-stablilized wood that the handles were considerably lighter......thanks for the info.

Terry

Terry,
My reel seat inserts come from cutoffs from my furniture shop, and are not "stabilized". Woodturners, esp. those who make large bowls and hollow vessels, sometimes use PEG and other stabilizers, but they're starting with very large blocks of wood and removing maybe 90% or more of the material, which on their scale of operations can cause an unstabilized blank to do lots of crazy things. For something as small as a seat insert, stabilizing isn't necessary on most North American hardwoods, even most burls. Drill the blank and rough-turn it slightly over size, then let it rest for a few days in a dry place to do any natural expansion and contraction. When you get back on the lathe for final turning, you may notice that the blank got slightly distorted when it was resting- That's why you turn wood down to its final diameter in stages. During assembly, coat the exposed end grain of the insert with epoxy to help seal the wood. Just curious, what kind of wood are you using?
Tom White

Thanks Tom. I am using Ebony, Ambonya Burl, Maple, Some Spalted Maple and CA Buckeye Burl. Thanks again

when you say stabilized, do you mean green or non-seasoned? if so, i read somewhere that someone puts their wood in a microwave to draw the moister out.

Daniel, what I mean is wood that has been dried and is fully dried, but has not be treated or stabalized by any process.