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I turned this Pin Oak end grain slice of log and sealed it with white wood sealer, sanded it smooth and applied salad bowl finish on it (3 coats) sanded it smooth again and a week later this crack appeared! I am appealing for your help/advise/tips on how I would be able to salvage this beautiful bowl. It may be destined for the fire pit but I don't want to do that till I have run out of options. One thought would be to slice it through the middle and re-glue it thus making it an out of round bowl? Another would be to fill it with epoxy? A third would be to live with it as is?

Anyone have any other suggestions?

THANKS for helping!

Erwin, Jacksonville, FL

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Wow. Looking at that grain, that is certainly a shame. Unfortunately, I am new enough to turning that I haven't had to deal with anything like this just yet. However, I am hoping to do some projects like this using green wood soon, and hope to avoid this happening if I can. I am going to watch this thread with interest. I do remember reading about people using CA glue to either fill up or close up some cracks when working with green wood, but I'm really curious how you would go about actually closing the gap in order to glue it without risking breaking the whole thing into kindling. I hope that some others have some good suggestions to help.
 

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In my humble opinion, leave it. It's still a beautiful bowl with a wonderful grain pattern and nice coloring.
As you turn you're going to run into this fom time to time. I have a few of those myself.
 

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i'm not the person to be giving advice.. but i think it looks beautiful the way it is :) sometimes nature adds her own touch to projects ;)
 

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A very beautiful bowl. Do not throw it away.

Keep as is, or maybe carefully insert and glue in a long "wedge", maybe even with a contrasting wood.

Last year my son-in-law turned a beautiful cherry bowl that dropped on the floor during sanding, chipping the top edge. I glued the pieces back into place and one has to look carefully under good light to see that the bowl was damaged.
 

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Give it some time to stabilize and then take another look at it. I'm like the others, it is really cool the way it is, but I have seen some of the LJ's actually use colored epoxy to fill a void like that.
 

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Great art sometimes never happens by our own hands but by the work of God's hands. That crack appeared to give the bowl Character and a touch you could never duplicate, Keep it as it is never try to repair art!!!! love the bowl as it is.
 

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Another vote for loving it just like it is!
 

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Leave it. It is beautiful the way it is.
Rod
 

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Use a band saw and saw it in half at the crack. glue together then repeat untill there's no crack. It may take 3 or 4 times untill it's completely closed. It may affect the shape but it works.
 

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shape a triangular sliver of wood that fits in to the crack and use black dyed epoxy to glue it in. Sand smooth and refinish.
 

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you might wanna try filling it with an epoxy/sawdust mix to try and match the softer spots from the spalting. and then take a sharpie pen and draw an outline around it, making it look as though it was spalted.
 

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I say leave it the way it is. It's beautiful. If you really want to fill the area, there are several epoxy products that would do the trick.
 

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First off, I am not a wood turner, But this is a piece of art, I think. Check out stevebirdman, or some body else, and do the malachite, in all of the cracks and crevices, and then display it on a rack. Granted you would not be able to use it for any thing other than a display, but go check the foo foo shops and see how much they get for things like this.

Bott
 

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Ive turned some white oak that initially cracked really bad, but in time the gaps came back together. The crack was not this bad though. The most creative idea I've seem was at a Bass Pro shop and they drilled multiple holes on both sides of the crack, and laced the void with a strip of leather. Very impressive, but useful if it is for a display only. To prevent future cracking, try to leave the pith (center of log) out of the work.
 

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Whatever you do, don't turn it into firewood! :)

I'd give it a few weeks to stabilise and then see how it looks. Epoxy could be pretty.
 

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This is redundant, but I would not have considered the opening to be a problem until you asked for opinions. I have picked out wood to turn because of the open areas. Looks absolutely wonderful (and natural) to me!
 

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There are several creative fillers (turquiose comes to mind) if a solid bowl is a must…
 

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Yes, I think that is salvageable…

Yes, let it stabilize a few days before doing anything…
You might think of using Epoxy mixed with some of the Lighter Brown sawdust in the bowl…

If done, I'll bet you wouldn't be able to tell that anything was ever wrong with it…

Think about it… I'd like to see it work…
 

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I believe it will always look like a crack..you will never hide it.. just don't eat liquid stuff in it :) :)
 
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