The bowl is not old, but the cedar is. The wood is part of one of the posts which supported a 110 year old house SWMBO and I dismantled last year.
The posts were set about 4 to 5 feet deep in red plastic clay which is under the part of town I live in. The wood was soaking wet when it was pulled from the ground and the heart wood was gone. The remaining wood seemed pretty sound and was stained somewhat, from its time in the ground.
I have not turned anything quite this soft, before, and was not too sure what to expect. Long curls of wet wood streamed from the gouge, and this was just too fun. And messy.
Rough turned to about 3/4 inch thickness, I set the bowl aside until this winter to finish. I just finished it the other night, and after sanding I gave it a coat inside and out,of water-soluble clear poly. The next day I sanded again, as the water had raised the end grain a lot.
There is a fine network of checking in the wood. I noticed the cross-grain character is quite brittle and resulted in significant shallow fracture rather than clean cutting in the end-grain portions of the bowl, maybe 5% of the end-grain area. I was taking very fine cuts when doing the finish turning on this project and had no grabs or dammits. Final sanding after the coat of poly was 400 grit, and then buffed out with Beall's ball bowl buffs and a very light touch of wax on the 3rd buff. (my first buffing effort, and I am very pleased with the "naked" finish)
Overall I am happy with the project, but am now wondering about what is usually done to the wood when it is so soft, to prevent the kinds of surface flaws I got in the end grain. I am thinking that spalted wood projects *must* use something to hold the wood together under the stresses of spinning and cutting and sanding. What?
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