It looks like the Group has slowed down a bit so thought I would post my latest
test results of the Alcohol Drying of Wet Wood technique. There may be some who
feel this is a farce, but in the past I've had excellent results with it. My
latest test was on a piece of wet walnut tree root that was about 5 inches in
diameter. Because of its size, I turned an endgrain vase out of it. The rough
turned wall thickess was about 5/8". I soaked it in alcohol that we've used
several times before for 24 hours. I removed it from the alcohol and let it dry
off for a short while and then wrapped it in brown grocery sack on the outside
and top rim, leaving the inside open and upright. I weighed it as soon as it was
wrapped, here are the results:

At time of wrapping 5-4-06 Weight was 450 grams
The next morning 5-5-06 Weight was 400 grams
5-6-06 365 grams
5-7-06 320 grams
5-8-06 310 grams
5-9-06 265 grams
5-11-06 240 grams
5-13-06 200 grams
5-14-06 190 grams
5-15-06 190 grams

After weighing today, I final turned it. The foot was still round so that I
could use the chuck tenon originally used to turn the piece. There were no
cracks or checks. The piece has lost 58 percent of its original weight in ten
days setting in my shop. It was out of round by less that 1/16 inch. The wood
was very dry when turned.

I have no previous experience with walnut tree root, but these results fit
nicely with other tests that we've made. I've never known a soaking wet piece of
turned wood to dry completely in 10 days without some sort of help. I hope this
information will be of use to some of the people on this newsgroup. It will not
help the non-believers who will not give it a try or who have claimed to try it
and found it not to work. For the rest of you, I recommend you give it a try on
your next wet turned piece. We used Methel Alcohol, so don't drink the stuff!!

Fred Holder
http://www.fholder.com


--
NewsGuy.Com 30Gb $9.95 Carry Forward and On Demand Bandwidth