On Feb 7, 2:56*am, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

You need to soak it on a specail wax that replaces the water so it never
'dries out'

High molecular weight polyethylene glycol PEG 1000 (no, baking grade
doesn't work).

You shouldn't need this for most work in UK timber. It's really just
for exotics. Bowls are normally turned from halved logs, not as end-
grain disks from across the log. So long as you avoid the pith and you
dry them slowly, you can avoid cracking - they'll warp instead.

I have most of a chestnut still to turn up, after it was felled a few
months ago. I turn the untreated logs green to be thick-walled bowl
blanks, coat them in wax emulsion (not PEG) and leave them to dry for
a year or two. Then I finish turn them to shape. They'll warp in this
time and a few will crack, but the walls were left thick enough that I
should still get an unwarped bowl out from inside. It's also easier
to store bowl blanks than to store a whole tree.