Prometheus wrote:

Hello all,

I went out on Sunday with the bow saw, and cut myself some nice maple
and birch out of some trees that were knocked over when the logging
trucks widened the road in the county forest. Since I don't have a
big stock of cured blanks yet, I've been turning a little of it
sopping wet. I know the standard procedure is to put a coat of sealer
over the roughed-out blank and wait for it to dry out, but I want to
have a few finished pieces as well! I made a little maple bowl
tonight after work, and finished it with a 3lb. cut of shellac, in the
hopes that it may survive.... I have seen a couple of references to
finishing the piece right away, but this is the first time I've tried
this. Did I mess up a perfectly nice little bowl, or is it likely to
survive with the shellac on it to slow down the moisture exchange? If
it does survive, does finishing immediately work on larger pieces as
well, or does it need to have a thin wall?

Thanks for any advice you've got!

And then there is the LDD approach. 50/50 mixture of liquid dish detergent
and water, soak the nearly finished bowl for 24 hours wipe most of the
solution off, cover the bed of your lathe with plastic sheeting, chuck the
piece up and finish it on out, I usually use shellac and wax for a finish.
Depending on the type of wood, warping will be either non existant or give
you a nice oval effect (oak is bad about going oval). However, I have had
no problems with any of my pieces splitting.

Deb