# Help with green wood



## Twig Man (Oct 22, 2012)

One of the bowls I am working on which is a hickory root. Hard to chip on by the way:wacko1: Is starting to crack in many places, is there anything I can do to save it? I was thinking of coating it in a epoxy finish hoping it would secure all the cracks and prevent further cracking. I dont know if thats a good idea or not....any thoughts?


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## Kevin (Oct 22, 2012)

Twig Man said:


> One of the bowls I am working on which is a hickory root. Hard to chip on by the way:wacko1: Is starting to crack in many places, is there anything I can do to save it? I was thinking of coating it in a epoxy finish hoping it would secure all the cracks and prevent further cracking. I dont know if thats a good idea or not....any thoughts?



I would seal it in several coats of wax and stop working it for a few months. If you seal it in epoxy it will wreck if it cannot lose nay moisture at all, because it *will* find a way to lose the moisture and that will wreck it. Show us a pic though . . . .


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## Twig Man (Oct 22, 2012)

Thanks Kevin, i will take some pictures tomorrow and seal it up.


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## DKMD (Oct 22, 2012)

I assume these pieces get worked on over a period of days or weeks... If so, I'd out the piece in a plastic bag between sessions to prevent cracking. Once you get the wall thickness pretty even and surfaces finished, a paper bag may allow it to finish drying more slowly. 

As for pieces with cracks, I haven't had any luck making utilitarian items from them. CA and epoxy will fill cracks, but I don't think either one will hold up to repeated washing and wood movement. If it's a decorative piece, the adhesives probably give you the best chance, or you can just live with the cracks.


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## Twig Man (Oct 22, 2012)

Doc, It will be a decorative piece. Thanks for the suggestions.


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## Ancient Arborist (Oct 23, 2012)

You may have more than a moisture issue. If you are cutting this wood and it shows cracks seemingly too fast, you may be dealing with stored tension, which can't really be stopped. Roots especially have a lot of compression going on (the purty parts) gives nice figure but it wants to move when we cut away adjacent supporting wood. I don't know how you feel about cracks, but I think they are an acceptable hazard in figured wood. The most beautiful wood in the world is also some of the most unstable. Try drying as best you can with the plan of coming back later and filling cracks with colored epoxy. I recently filled cracks with clear and liked the effect of being able to see into them. A woodturner friend of mine recently filled some cracks with epoxy and sawdust from the piece and it made the cracks.almost disappear. Hope this helps.


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## Twig Man (Oct 23, 2012)

Ancient Arborist said:


> You may have more than a moisture issue. If you are cutting this wood and it shows cracks seemingly too fast, you may be dealing with stored tension, which can't really be stopped. Roots especially have a lot of compression going on (the purty parts) gives nice figure but it wants to move when we cut away adjacent supporting wood. I don't know how you feel about cracks, but I think they are an acceptable hazard in figured wood. The most beautiful wood in the world is also some of the most unstable. Try drying as best you can with the plan of coming back later and filling cracks with colored epoxy. I recently filled cracks with clear and liked the effect of being able to see into them. A woodturner friend of mine recently filled some cracks with epoxy and sawdust from the piece and it made the cracks.almost disappear. Hope this helps.



I think your absolutly right on this one. The root has very tight spiral grain and that may be the reason it is cracking as I carve it. Thanks for the thoughts on this.


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## Twig Man (Oct 23, 2012)

Here is a pic or the bowl so far as you can see it looks to be more of a shearing of the grain. None the less I am going to seal it up and let it sit a while and see what I have to deal with in a couple of months. Thanks for all the suggestions!


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## dean jordan (Oct 24, 2012)

I dont know wht stage or thickness you are at right now. In Oregon we work alot with madrone burl and trunk wood both of which re heaven to turn but are notorius for instability and cracking.
The most succesul way developed up here is boiling the wood. Dale Larson Probably the best known madrone tuner will rough out a bowl and then boil it for about I hour an inch of thickness.I use this technique often but I also have sucess boiling/steaming a piece of green wood turned to finished thickness. The boiling or wet steam(which is hotter than boiling) realeases a lot of the tension in the cells of the wood. it may darken the wood at first but a good sanding will bring it back.so I boil before my sanding. I put the piece in a paper bag and it will dry in 3 to 4days. we used to have a large wood supllier that welded a dump truck box watertight would fill it with madrone and other unstable woods and build a large fire under it and boil for about 10 to12 hours. that wood was then very stable and pretty much dry. (And expensive) i have found that most root wood has more tension in it than trunk wood. Even after all this it can still crack but I have above a 90% sucess rate.
Hope this helps.


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## Twig Man (Oct 24, 2012)

dean jordan said:


> I dont know wht stage or thickness you are at right now. In Oregon we work alot with madrone burl and trunk wood both of which re heaven to turn but are notorius for instability and cracking.
> The most succesul way developed up here is boiling the wood. Dale Larson Probably the best known madrone tuner will rough out a bowl and then boil it for about I hour an inch of thickness.I use this technique often but I also have sucess boiling/steaming a piece of green wood turned to finished thickness. The boiling or wet steam(which is hotter than boiling) realeases a lot of the tension in the cells of the wood. it may darken the wood at first but a good sanding will bring it back.so I boil before my sanding. I put the piece in a paper bag and it will dry in 3 to 4days. we used to have a large wood supllier that welded a dump truck box watertight would fill it with madrone and other unstable woods and build a large fire under it and boil for about 10 to12 hours. that wood was then very stable and pretty much dry. (And expensive) i have found that most root wood has more tension in it than trunk wood. Even after all this it can still crack but I have above a 90% sucess rate.
> Hope this helps.



Maybe I need to boil my root :rofl2: I dont know if I have a pot big enough for that thing but it is a good thought.


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## Twig Man (Oct 24, 2012)

Well just went to the kitchen and found a huge pot . It is one we use to do shrimp boils in, now I have to figure a way out to sneak it by my wife. She is already mad at me for microwaving a turkey blank. I told her my friend Kevin in Texas told me to do it.


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