end grain sealer

AFAIK, the original Kilz was oil based, and then they came out with a VOC friendly water based formula, which is basically the same as latex. Either should be fine for sealing end grain. I don't think I've ever seen one that was alcohol based, so that might be a different animal than what I'm thinking of. I just use old latex paint, and prefer white so I can write on the piece the type of wood and date harvested with a black marker.



Cheers,
Brad

IME - The wood surfaces dry so fast in Arizona, you have to paint the ends immediately after felling, or they have already cracked a few hours later. Also, latex does not seal AZ DRY end grain well. The wood absorbs the water in latex, and prevents significant sealing.

I use oil based primer, random left over enamel, or thinned down 'old' polyurethane; when I need to seal end grain. The oil base takes longer to dry, absorbs further into wood, and appears to seal better.

One of my Sawyer's swears; it's Anchorseal (oil base solvent emulsion and wax), or nothing; as all other solutions behave like no sealer was used in our single digit humidity.

When I first learned to buck/saw logs as kid on giant saw driven by wide belt and PTO on tractor; farmer that owned the saw, used to heat linseed oil and paraffin wax to seal ends of large beams. Normal lumber slabs were never sealed.
Laughed when I recently noticed Osmo selling another expensive oil/wax product, called end grain sealer. Anyone can make oil/wax blend dirt cheap. Hot plate and coffee can is all equipment you need. Farmer used an old camp stove. Sometimes old school is best.

i tried using left over ext, latex paint, but alas, here in desert where no humidity most of year, it was marginal. still a lot of major cracking and shrinkage, but mother nature will provide other options on pcs, later on.
gonna keep trying stuff to see what works best here in this climate
rj in az

- Knockonit

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i tried using left over ext, latex paint, but alas, here in desert where no humidity most of year, it was marginal. still a lot of major cracking and shrinkage, but mother nature will provide other options on pcs, later on.
gonna keep trying stuff to see what works best here in this climate
rj in az

- Knockonit

Click to expand...

I have found here in the Vegas desert, that tite bond 2 wood glue makes a great end grain sealer. and I buy a gallon of it at a time anyhow. So I always have it on hand. The logs pictured are about a month old. I left them 2 to 3 feet long. I have had better success not cutting them into a usable size till I need them.
Milky yellow glue dries semi clear.




This tree fell over in a wind storm. Turns out it was dying. Base of the tree was heavily spalted.
Smaller branches, and some of the spalted pieces I dipped in hot wax. but in a few months I am going to stabilize them with cactus juice. we will see how the small logs with wax as a sealer works here.
Oh, the glue as a sealer stores well outside in the shade. Where all the waxed items will have to be kept in the shop. to hot here for the wax to be outside for sure.
Here is a waxed piece. time will tell how well it works. But plenty of store bought blanks come this way.
If you choose wax. A $5 dollar yard sale electric fry pan, and old candles. Or paraffin wax off amazon is what I used.