boiling again

Please excuse my ignorance, but why boil it? I've never heard of doing this.

It is some kind of a turner's old wives tale. I have been trying for years to fight back the frontiers of ignorance in this regard. You couldn't believe what these fellows get up to in the privacy of their shops, garages and woodsheds. I suspect they may be reincarnated torture masters from the Middle Ages. They will boil, bake, freeze, microwave, soak in WD40, antifreeze, alcohol, etc! To think of treating a nice piece of wood that way simply staggers the imaginaton! My way is quite kinder, more ecologically sound and wastes little energy. I propose you use Liquid Dishwashing Liquid (LDD) and water in a mix of 50/50 to safeguard your wood from splitting, cracking, warping in extreme agony from the other methods. Ii is a clean process and will leave your hands smooth and a delight for your wife or girlfriend or boyfriend to feel.*G*

If you feel like taking the big step and crossing over from the darkness and use this process, send me an email request for "The World Famous Treatise on LDD.

Leif

if you turn it to final thickness, and it is as thin as you say, you are almost sure to be safe presuming you cut the pith out. If you want to leave it thicker, then boiling is a good alternative - note that if you turn to final thickness, it may still distort, but it won't crack - at least it's very unlikely to - but I have seen (some of my pieces) move a lot (but not walnut - walnut seems pretty stable)

Bill

to contact me, do not reply to this message, instead correct this address and use it

will iam_ b_ No ble at msn daught com

The great guru of boiling says an hour per inch of thickness. Catchy and easy to remember.

Given all the claims of success (failures are attributed to not following "the formula" precisely) at various boiling or soaking times and solutions, what you wish to achieve is certainly achievable. Walnut is routinely steamed to color the sapwood closer to the heartwood color, but it loses the pink and purple highlights when it is. Are you sure this is what you're after?

As I'm turning a log into a large vase the pith will remain in the bottom

William B Noble (d> if you turn it to final thickness, and it is as thin as you say, you

Hi Bill

The consensus is to boil 1 hour or more per 1" of thickness.

My little experience with boiling is that it does help some, but you will get a somewhat washed out color from it, like LDD.

The walnut does move a lot, that is the sapwood does, the hearth wood does not move that much, this is initially, after it has dried it is very stable.

Your problem is of course going to be the knots and the wood directly around it, and also the end grain in the bottom.

The bottom end grain is dealt with easiest, increase its strength and slow down the drying with CA glue, (medium thin) just do the outside bottom.

If you turn away the sap wood you will have less trouble and better looking wood, also with end grain turning you don't need the 10% wall as with side grain turning, a 5/8" to 3/4" wall would be plenty IMO.

The knots might be tripping you up though, depending on their size and the amount of stress wood surrounding them, if you boil the wood you loose most of the stress that is there at that point, however the wood does have to dry after the boiling and there is going to be stress from that, though less than without the boiling.

I have used CA glue whit success on knots by saturating them, so the knot could not shrink, but of course you see the glue in the wood.

Go for it Bill, it should be fun and more experience for the next one.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Help yourself out with the pith by dishing in from the bottom side as well as the top, so that radial shrinkage will have space to compress, rather than wood which compresses poorly, leading to radial splits. Then set the piece up on some rails so that free air can get underneath and dry the underside of the end grain as rapidly as the top. I started playing goblets, and a lot of them split at the base, until I realized that setting it on the bottom was effectively keeping one side wet while the other dried and split. Circulation since, and twelve for twelve.