# Sealed end grain with parrafin/mineral spirits, but...



## dpoisson (Jun 3, 2010)

Howdy everyone,
I cut a couple of game call blanks a couple of months ago. I thought they were dry, but I've noticed that they started cracking near the ends (very very small cracks, 3/8th's in length, just barely apparently, no depth really).

I did a quick check online with what I had on hands and I saw that I could seal the ends using a mix of paraffin and mineral spirits (50/50). I double-dipped all of my blanks (except the first couple of blanks, which are on the left on the pic below) in such a solution and left them to dry…however, it's been nearly 8 hrs now and the ends are still very soft. I'm starting to wonder if I should remove the excess paraffin from the blanks? Anyone else ever do something similar? I would be tempted to scrape off the excess paraffin so that it looks more like the sides of the 2-3 blanks on the left (bloodwood).

Here's what it looks like:


















Cheers,

Fish


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## EPJartisan (Nov 4, 2009)

i wouldn't remove the excess… I use sticky wax myself and I use it generously.


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## dpoisson (Jun 3, 2010)

EPJartisan, do you think the fact that I used mineral spirits can somehow mark or stain the wood in some way?

thanks!

fish


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## EPJartisan (Nov 4, 2009)

Not that I know of, but you should test it on smaller pieces of wood just to be safe. I know Denatured Alcohol will darken some woods like bloodwood and rosewood and pink ivory, but not by much and not deep. Naptha and other methanols can remove pigment from some woods and dry the oil a bit.. a trick used in finishing. But overall… I think you should be fine.


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