Green wood turning mess

Wow, it sure did!! It does actually looks very nice. If you would not have told the story behind it, I am sure there would be people asking how they can do that! Mark it up as art!

-- James - What's your excuse this time??

I agree with WW that is a really great looking turning! I like the unusual look of it and diffenently goes into the art catagory!

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

Just fill the cracks with some tinted epoxy and you still have an artistic rustic piece

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

Hey, it’s just different. Not every piece has to be perfect, that’s what makes it unique.

-- Paul, North Dakota, USAF Ret.

microwave dry, try it next time!

Unfortunately some wood fibers shift dramatically as they dry or during steep temperature changes….I believe it goes that the longer the fibres…the more the shift…but I am not a scientist…

What I do know is that you have to basically acclimate a green wood to the local ambience….which to say is to let it gradually dry…what I do is to make sure the item is not in an area with sharp increases or decreases in temp…i.e. in my area the nightly low can be 45degrees and go to 80+degrees during the daily high….this would put too much stress on the wood as it dries. So I keep a room or area (depending on how much stuff I am drying) with a fairly consistent temperature….I maintain the same with the humidity….even occasionally misting the piece with a sprayer….for at least a week after I have turned the wood…..Once I can see that the wood has acclimated (you can use a meter…or just the feeling of the grain by hand)...I can then let it sit at room temp for a couple days…..after that time is when I can apply the finish….its time consuming….but you can see the results if you do not (small checks that were barely visable are now wide open…cracks not seen before are there…etc…etc..

-- Woodworking.....My small slice of heaven!

I think it turned out to be a unique piece of art. Very unique!

-- John @ Myrtle Beach

I’m with Jim, there are a lot of products out there you could use to fill the voids that would highlight the wood. I love that wood.

Okay, if I am being honest, as a young man in East Texas I had an uncle that had this mean old bull that would chase all of us kids that would walk through his pasture to fish. When he was tired of chasing us, we would throw rocks at a particular part of his anatomoy…That is a picture perpect replication.

I guess the piece wasn’t kiln-dried before sealing it with wax . A friend of mine removes the wax when he buys such pieces and then puts the piece into a brown paper bag and “forgets” about it for a few months while it acclimates to his shop environment. I’ve had good luck using the same process myself : )

-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .

I find the piece quite interesting and artistic.
I doubt you could have ever gotten that piece of eucalyptus with it’s wild grain to dry without cracking and warping. Eucalyptus is difficult to dry even when the grain is nice and straight. Even if you have removed some of the wax and let it dry slower this piece would have cracked. In my experience you were better off turning it green and letting nature take it’s course. There are wood turners who do that on purpose.

There are water displacing products, Pentacryl wood preservative is one, in which you can soak wet wood and gradually replace the water with this ingredient. Using it would “saved” the piece. You would probably have needed to partially turn it before soaking in thisl solution for better penetration. I have seen other products that work similarly and come in a solid form that is dissolved in water. I have no experience using them however.

-- Les B, Oregon

You may be disappointed that it isn’t what you had in mind but step back and change your mind set. It’s great. Tell everyone you “meant to do that” and leave them in awe. ;)

-- Berg, Central NH & Gulfport, FL - "It's raining...what a beautiful day to puddle jump" 3y/o Devlyn