Woodworm

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keithkarl2007

keithkarl2007

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Joined
Apr 22, 2008
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I was cutting up a piece of wood earlier into pen blanks when i noticed there was a few small worm holes along the side of the board. I have cut 34 blanks that seem ok but I'm worried there may be some still in the blanks. There are no obvious exit holes. Can these be treated or should I just burn them?
 
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You can nuke them or bake them in the oven, you can also douse the wood with paint thinner, that will kill whatever lurks inside.
 
robersonjr said:
You can nuke them or bake them in the oven, you can also douse the wood with paint thinner, that will kill whatever lurks inside.
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If i part filled a bucket with thinners and left them in it would that be ok? If there are any worm holes they are tiny and I can't see them. Some may be going Stateside so I want to make sure they are treated properly before sending anything over.
 
Are they fresh or old or can you tell (i.e. was there any powder)? I get a lot of bog oak from Co. Roscommon and some have worm holes but all have been old. If it makes you feel better, you could nuke them for a minute or two - I wouldn't do more than 6 or 8 at a time and for God's sake, don't let your wife catch you doing it.
 
Can't tell how old the board was, a friend gave it to me. I cut about 30 blanks from the board before the woodworm got to it. It had been left aside as I hadn't been in my workshop the past couple of months. I think the woodworm came from a lump of beech that had woodworm holes. I was led to believe it was treated. Not going to let that happen again. Thanks everyone for your advice.

Sorry I know what you mean, no there was no powder around the holes.
 
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Rather than start another thread, I have a couple of pieces of elm burl and 2 pieces of yew burl. When cut into pen and stopper/brush blanks, would they be ok left to air dry? Yew is very prone to checking and I want to avoid that if I can. The yew pieces are very big and I don't know the best way to cut them without wasting it. I'll post some photos tomorrow.
 
I don't feel right asking all these questions after being away from the site for so long. I had been lurking the last month or two leaving comments and that. I'm only starting to get back into turning now and really appreciate all the help and advice you guys and all the other members have given me in the past.
 
You might be best off cutting them into more manageable pieces to dry and then cutting around the checks into usable blanks. I don't have a LOT of experience in cutting burls but the ones I have cut, I've cut oversize and they still warp, twist, etc so as to be almost useless. When I cut pieces into slabs, I just let them dry and then use the checks as a starting place to cut and go from there.

The good thing about pen making is that there is no waste. Any small pieces can be used for segmenting, scalloping, finials, etc.

Any interest in trading for some of that Yew burl once it's dried? I have some American wood that might interest you...
 
When it's cut and dry I'll be putting a few pieces on the classifieds as someone was looking for some before. I think it was Charles :confused: , his username is on the tip of my tongue. It'll come to me :smile:
 
You can put the blanks in the freezer and leave them for a day or so and then take them out. If anything was inside it will be dead. I even do it with big pieces, just leave it in longer.
 
Hi Keith,
Back when I was still working, when we shipped to Australia, under their import laws for wood packing and boxes, we had to fumigate everything... since I just ordered the fumigation from a local company, I never actually saw what they put under the covers, but you might check with local pest control people and see if they can give you the name of something... you can wrap the blanks in a tarp or something that will contain the fumes, shoot the gas into the tarp and let it sit for 24 hours... might save you some headaches later for shipping trans-borders.
 
TellicoTurning said:
Hi Keith,
Back when I was still working, when we shipped to Australia, under their import laws for wood packing and boxes, we had to fumigate everything... since I just ordered the fumigation from a local company, I never actually saw what they put under the covers, but you might check with local pest control people and see if they can give you the name of something... you can wrap the blanks in a tarp or something that will contain the fumes, shoot the gas into the tarp and let it sit for 24 hours... might save you some headaches later for shipping trans-borders.
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Thanks Chuck, I'll check it out.
 
You might consider stabilizing your blanks. This process uses a vacuum chamber, resin and a 200 F oven to cure it all in place. That would kill the bugs, help with the checking concerns and make the blanks hard and ready to turn.
 
BangleGuy said:
You might consider stabilizing your blanks. This process uses a vacuum chamber, resin and a 200 F oven to cure it all in place. That would kill the bugs, help with the checking concerns and make the blanks hard and ready to turn.
Click to expand...

I would love to do that but i don,t have the equipment to do it. I had some bog oak burly blanks that i had tried to turn but they were very brittle and could have done with stabilizing also
 
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