Derek,
You can take wet turned bowls, dry them slowly, then sand and finish.
If your turning tecnique is good enough, you can wet sand them before
drying. The main thing with this style is to turn fairly thin,with even
wall thickness at 3/8 to 1/4 inch. If it is fairly humid where you are,
just setting on a shelf, out of sun and wind, will work. You can also
brown bag it which creates a stable mini enviroment for the bowl to dry
in. The bowl will warp, and seldom cracks. It can be dry enough to sand
and oil finish in a week to a month. If it still feels cool to the
touch, it needs to dry a bit longer. Fruit woods seem to be way more
prone to splitting if they are thicker than 1/4 inch. Maple seems to be
okay up to 1/2 inch thick.
robo hippy



















Derek Andrews wrote:
I would agree with George that finishing is probably best left until
the
bowl is dry. If you must finish it straight away, a non curing
finish
like mineral oil or beeswax might be a better compromise.

If you turn the bowl thin enough, it will warp rather than crack.
Here
is a yellow birch bowl that I turned recently:
http://chipshop.blogspot.com/2005/04/warped-bowl.html
It is now dry and waiting for the base to be trued up before
finishing.

--
Derek Andrews, woodturner

http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com
http://chipshop.blogspot.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toolrest/