My first bowls

Hello Bojan,

It is possible to fill the cracks with various stuff, such as: Inlace, sawdust (or some other filler) and CA glue, epoxy, etc. However, before you do those things, I recommend a process that Wally Dickerman posted about a few years ago. I tried it and it worked for me on several bowls.

Get some white glue and mix it with an equal part of water so that the bowl is completely submerged, use a rock or something to hold the bowl under the solution. Let it set for a few days and then take it out. With luck the crack will have closed and the glue will keep it from opening up again.

The first time I tried it was with a 14" maple salad bowl I had rough turned as a house warming gift for a friend. The bowl cracked and was open 1/4" at the rim. I decided to try Wally's process. I let the bowl soak for about three days and took it out. The crack was still open. I said to myself, Wally your idea didn't work. I threw the bowl out on a pile of lumber in the yard and forgot about it. About a week later after several days of rain, I walked by the bowl and noticed the crack had completely closed up. I put the bowl in the shed to dry for a few weeks and then final turned it. There was a faint line where the crack had been. It has been about three years now and she is still using it without the crack ever opening up again. I've used this process on several other cracked bowls with good success.

I recommend you try this process first. If that doesn't work, then fill it with one of the things mentioned.

Good luck,

Fred Holder

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The first bowl you could probably epoxy fill the gap and turn after it's set up.

The walnut, I'm not sure on. There are quite a few artistic turners who would carefully turn it as is and sell it as a character piece.

All in all, it looks like you had fun.

I noticed on the first picture that you left the pith (center of the log) in the bowl. If you had turned the rim down below the pith, it would be less likely to crack. Just a note for future bowls.

The crack did not originate at the pith, that's why it's not wider there. It's a stress crack from drying, and might have done better if the bowl hadn't been so broad at the bottom. Sloping (curving) sides generally survive better than nearly vertical. Unless that's some special piece of wood, it's time to cut it for practice and not worry about perfection. Find another piece of wood for that.

Examine the heart (pith or not) very carefully on any turnings, and don't accept cracks at greater than 30 degrees or so to the surface. They're low percentage saves, even with good glue. Turn it away. Seldom will you have to lose more depth than you could recover by not using a tenon on the bottom.

SNIP

SNIP

Now that's something I have never heard of before. You can bet the next time one of mine decides to commit suicide by cracking I will give it a try.

Thanks, Fred.

Robert

My father in law also swears by lathering cracked wood in thick coat of linseed oil. My wife did a little decorating on a piece of mine that had cracked and sent it down to him, and linseed oil evidently closed it up firmly. I've heard the story of her mom's cracked chainsaw-carved pig that was repaired in the same manner too many times to count as well.

I haven't tried it myself, not too many of my pieces crack (through luck or technique I couldn't say) and I'm not really an oil finish guy. If there's anything that really needs to be saved for some reason, though, I imagine it'd be worth a try.

Hi Robert If you search this group, under "glue soup" you will find a couple of post by me where I explained the way I have used the glue/water to reduce the cracks/splits and also the hardening of punky wood, I have posted this in WC with pictures, from the rough turned wood, and the end result of the finished wood. You can find it there also under glue soup. Havew fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

I've had good luck with the process of roughing out the bowl to make the wall thickness about 10% of the bowl diameter, then set it aside to dry. If the wood is really wet, I put it in a paper bag. If it's sorta wet, I'll put a plastic bag around the outside loosely, and leave the inside open. Sort of a judgment call.

When the wood is dry (meaning that it has kept the same weight for two weeks) I'll put it back on the lathe and finish it. There is still some movement, but not too much.

I do get cracks, and repair them as other posters have mentioned.

I look at the cracks as learning how to manage drying the wood, just like I had catches in trying to manage the gouge. Sometimes I fill 'em, sometimes I leave 'em.

Oh, and the bowls look great. Now do some more.

Old Guy

Bojan you can rescue these bowls, but you will always be able to see the cracks, they will not disappear. Your first is an easy one just soak in the glue soup for a couple of days and then take it out, let drip dry or wipe dry, then place in a brown paper bag and let it dry at a air still spot without heat, if you had done this after you had turned it, I'm quite sure it would not have split like it did. For the glue soup recipe, look under my reply to nailshooter below. The second bowl is going to be more of a challenge, place it in water, boil the water 2 hours, then let the water cool down with the bowl in it, the split should have closed a lot by now, drive a screw in the bowl so it will close the gap even more, try tightening the scrwe a couple more times in the next few hours and days, also keep the bowl in a brown paper bag like the one above. After that you can leave as is or draw attention to it, don't try to hide it as you wont be able to do that anyway.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

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One thing I forgot, keep the bowl under water, both times, that is while in the glue soup and while boiling.

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by me where I explained the way I >have used the glue/water to reduce the cracks/splits >and also the hardening of punky wood, I have

result of the finished wood.

Thanks, Leo. I don't know how I have missed your posts on that. It makes sense, so I know I will try it when the opportunity presents itself. I am going over to WC to check out the pictures.

Robert

Thank you all for great advices. I'll try them out.