In article . net,
"Maxprop" wrote:

This weekend another turner was telling me about a seminar he attended. The
instructor--sorry, I've forgotten his name--recommended accelerating the
process of drying a rough green-turned bowl by boiling it in water for
approx. 30 minutes. He claimed it reduced the drying time from 6-9 months
to more like a few weeks.

Has anyone heard of this? Is it valid?

Yes it's valid. I've used the technique on some
hard-to-dry-without-splitting woods like plum and filbert - though I
boil much longer than 30 minutes.

I picked up an enameled lobster-sized pot at a thrift or yard sale for a
couple bucks. Fill it about 1/2 way with water, drop the turning in and
start the heat. I let it soft boil or simmer for at least an hour or 90
minutes then just turn the heat off and let it cool down with the water.
I then let it surface dry for a few hours and place it on a shelf in my
basement to finish up for a month or two.

I've had much better success (practically perfect) with boiling over
microwaving in regard to cracking. It's very easy to overdo the nuking
and end up with a bunch of small or not so small checks. I believe the
heating in the water alleviates any rapid moisture loss that can occur
when microwaving.

(Hmmmm - I was complaining about my experience with Red Oak and its
tendency to split when microwaing and/or bag drying. I'll have to see
how boiling works on that - for some reason, just didn't consider
boiling...)