Punky Wood

Having turned some "Punky wood", I would not Throw it out. You may have to use sanding sealer or something else while turning it, but the end result is usually worth the effort.

The Other Bruce =============================================================

Kev> I have almost run out of my current stock of Maple. However a neighbor

There's a company here in Woodburn, Oregon, called Woodsure that is a side-line business to an industrial plastic resin manufacturing outfit. Woodsure can take an unusable chunk of wood and impregnate it 100% with an acrylic resin. I had a couple pieces done as a test and it really worked to make the wood usable. They can use a clear resin or any number of colors - and with 100% impregnation, the color goes to the very center. Pretty cool process and it works very well.

Look them up on the web for further info.

Fortunately, when it's so punky that it crumbles where you try to hold or cut it, it's also incredibly ugly. Those soft spots will never pick up a good finish, won't look like much even if you deliberately try to out-soak 'em. I no longer feel a sense of loss when I stick a digit into the surface of a punky area. I save the sound parts or pitch the whole thing.

What will drive you to distraction and possibly hurt you are the radial checks which may have formed and closed. These show outlines like hairpins on the end grain, seem to pull apart at random regardless of gluing effort, and pose a disintegration danger to the turner.

If you can get a cut on a _wet_ surface which has only some peck-out, you'll be able to do a good dry cut. If you get crumble, or those radial checks open up after gluing, give it to the stove and move on. There's lots of other wood to turn.