Waster Maitenance

[Jeff Hansen]

Zach:
If you read my original post, I'm not advocating using green wood, i'm saying use oil to replicate the properties of green wood. As for evidence, go to the lumber yard and buy a dowel rod, then find a tree and cut off a branch of approximately the same diameter and length. Find an unyielding surface (i.e.- corner of bldg, fence post , tree trunk) WHEN the dowel rod shatters you will have your evidence. Dry wood is stiffer, not stronger. There is a difference. If you're building a house and you don't want your boards to bend and sag you want dry wood. If you're building a waster and you want it to react resiliently to impact, dry is bad.

[Mars Healey]

I have Brazilian Cherry guard and pommel on my waster and I use Teak Oil. Keeps the cherry nice and red and gives the hickory blade a deeper color too.

[Zach Palfreyman]

If I did your test and bend the green stick until it breaks, then apply that same amount of pressure to the same stick but this time its been dried then it will not bend as far and it will not break. If I continue to apply pressure then it will eventually break, and perhaps it didn't bend as far as the green stick but it will have taken a lot more pressure to break it! I would find that to be a desirable property in my waster, it does not bend as much, so it is less whippy, and it takes more force to break it. It will also be much harder, which means it will resist denting when I smash it into a pell or another waster, again I would find that a desirable benefit. The effects of moisture content on wood are well-known, just go download the Wood Handbook by the USDA if you want more info.

Second, oils like linseed and tung have no effect on the mechanical properties of your wood. It will not raise the moisture content (MC), it will not make it more flexible or stronger. What it will do is retard water vapor exchange which will help keep the MC of your wood from changing. Changes in the MC will cause the board to check, split, swell, shrink, etc. That is what finishes help protect against. If you want to oil your sword everyday, I don't care much, but I am not going to recomend it to someone especially as I feel it is only a waste of time and money.

Allen- you don't have to leave your waster out in the rain for the moisure content of the wood to change. Even a change in humidity or temperature will change the MC of wood. There are seasonal changes that will always affect wood, and then day-to-day changes which only has time to affect the surface. The linseed oil or whatever you finish the wood with will retard water vapor exchange so it takes longer for the MC to change. It will make your waster last longer because of that, I do not disagree that it helps the life of wood, I was arguing that you do not need to oil so much... if all you did with your waster was flourysh, then I would say once a year would be fine! The only reason to recoat it more than that is whacking it against stuff will crack the protective film that linseed and tung puts on the surface of the wood. As I already said above, it has no affect on the mechanical properties of wood (elasticity, hardness, impact strength, etc), you can read about that on the internet easy enough if you want to research it yourself.