Andy Dingley wrote:
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).


THANK YOU.
That's the thing whose name I could NOT remember.

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.


Good technique. I'd love to do wood turning..