DIYbanter - Sugar cured wood?

"Old guy" wrote in message
news:SJYgi.185674$_c5.40306@attbi_s22...
I had some tree trimming done, and tried to wheedle the trimmer into
letting me know if he ran into some good turning wood. He looked over my
shop, and asked about how I dried my bowls. After I explained about rough
turning wet, allowing to dry to moisture equilibrium and letting it dry, he
told me the method he used when he was cutting flat slabs to use for
presentation plaques.

Soak the wood for two weeks in a sugar water solution, then dry slowly.

Now if he can dry cross-cut slabs (which include pith) that way, it should
be something.

I'm a gonna try it.

Anybody reading this done it before?

If you add sugar to the wood, which is already composed of sugars, you add
both a bulking agent and a buffer, as sugar is also hygroscopic. Couple
weeks ought to do for a relatively thin 2 inch slab. Since your
rough-turned bowl probably has no place more than a couple inches from the
air through end grain, same schedule sounds promising.

Must ask why bother? It's too easy to dry a cross-grain rough turning by
neglect to want to go through some, or all of the weird formulae and
incantations people use. If you're going to try a long grain piece with the
heart in, might be worth the effort, but remember to control that relative
humidity on the way down rather than rely on a bulking agent. Friend of
mine did his crosscuts between layers of newsprint with great success, so a
little bit of help might be all that's needed.

Wonder how that affects finishing. What's he using on the plaques?