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How to seal and smooth torn wood fibers in a bowl ?

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I have a small turned bowl that has portions of the interior that have torn wood fibers that have not been smoothed and filled by several wiped-on coats of General bowl finish and that I would like to smooth and seal so it doesn't retain bowl contents when used with food. Can someone suggest an easy coating that I can apply to the interior of the bowl over the bowl finish that will fill the torn fiber area and create a smooth surface?
 
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Tough to get anything to stick to the oil type finish you put on there. Do you have enough wall thickness to hold it with a vacuum chuck and take a light cut with a bowl gouge? Or use a vacuum chuck and go to 36 grit powered sanding disc? You'll want to wash it down with acetone or naphtha before sanding or the first few discs will instantly fill with gummed up sawdust.
 

hockenbery

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You might be able to smooth the surface with a curved cabinet scraper.

as you are discovering you want to get the surface as good as you can with the gouge and sanding while it is on the lathe.

Wetting the surface with alcohol or thin shellac as a sealer will show you what the finished surface will look like and draw attention to areas that need more sanding.
 
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Roger Wiegand

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Flat piece of steel, you roll a burr on the edge and then use the burr as a scraper. With a bit of practice it leaves an extremely fine surface. You probably want to watch some videos of how to sharpen and use it.

Unfortunately I don't think you can ever hide tearout with a clear finish. Filler and paint perhaps.

2256_gooseneck_scraper_1_300.jpg
 
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There is no way I know to fix torn grain or tool marks with a finish. Blow off your work with compressed air between sanding grits. You will see any problems. You then can take a FRESHLY SHARPENED SCRAPER or gouge(your choice) and clean it up. Then finish sand.
 

hockenbery

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Thank you for your suggestions. Al, what is a cabinet scraper?
What Roger showed you. Woodcraft carries them.
I am more in the @Tom De Winter Camp. I seldom spend a lot of time fixing mistakes.
If I have lots of wood I will just turn another.

hopefully by next spring the tri-County club will Be able to have the Learn to turn bowl class.
It is my turn to be Rudy’s assistant, we take turns as the lead.
 
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As has already been said, you can't hide tear out. Sounds like you could really benefit from a hands on session. Also, some woods want to leave more tear out than others. Cottonwood is one of the worst. Cherry and apple are wonderful, and pear or dogwood are some of the easiest to turn without much tear out. You can, next time when there is lots of tear out, lightly wet the surface of the wood, and then take very fine cuts to turn the wet wood away. Worst experience I had was with some many years old Koa. It took a couple of wettings to get the tear out removed. The card scrapers also come in handy and you can more easily work on isolated spots.

robo hippy
 
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I am in the stubborn camp myself, probably should toss into firewood pile and start again. I have tons of wood, I'm just hard headed. I have tons of cotton-wood, elm, box-elder and red-oak wood. When I put that much into design/turning a piece, I don't, er, won't give up until it's destroyed or finished. Anywayz, I get some tear-out, I leave it a little thick and put in a bucket, then pour some Minwax wood hardner on it. I let it dry a couple days then finish turning. Sometimes when the tear-out is very small, I will soak the area with several coats of a 50/50 mix of shellac wood-conditioner and DNA. I will turn at a slower speed and sharpen my tools quite often. I take as thin a cut with a sharp tool, take my time and sometimes, with luck, I get a good finish. I am in no way a production turner, I am retired and just enjoy my new hobby. Most of y'all know I'm very new and still learning but I do come with a stubborn streak, my better half would agree... LOL I have a few cabinet scrapers, never thought of giving those a try. I love how they work on stubborn flat-work, will have to give them a try, thanks for the idea.
 
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I appreciate all of the advice. Sounds like remounting to fine tune the finish with a gouge or scraper is the consensus if I am not willing to toss it and start over. I don't yet have the blessing of all the wood I would like, so will probably not toss it. My own stubborn streak makes me want to learn how to do the best I can and this is an opportunity to hone my skills. I have enough wall thickness to be able to a little trim work. Once I have given it a shot I will post the outcome. Roger, the photo of the scraper was especially helpful!
 
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A standard bowl scraper will generally make tear out worse. It can be done on a hard smooth grain wood like sugar/hard maple, but you need to hone the burr off and hone the bevel. A NRS (negative rake scraper) can help with some woods, and again, they work better with harder woods rather than softer woods. I prefer a shear scrape, and prefer a scraper with a burnished burr. I do have a video dedicated to shear scraping. Some times you just have to resort to the 80 grit gouge. I wouldn't use 36 grit. Mostly it is because the scratches from it are deeper than all but the very worst tool marks.

robo hippy
 
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Bowl gouges work fine for the outside of a bowl shear scrape, but I don't think it can be done on the inside of a bowl. You would have to drop/lower the handle to get the shear angle...

robo hippy
 
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I like Mikes Video and all the advice given especially to start a new piece. Sometimes you may find a piece that is so punky but yet so beautiful that it may be worth trying to save. In those instances, I have used Polycryl. It has a long curing process but it worked a few times for me but not all. I don’t know if it’s food safe, but this type of piece probably should be for display only.
 
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Our local kitchen center had some turned wooden bowls of some soft wood, but what caught my eye was that they has a cream colored Plastic/acrylic/ resin liner over the entire inside of the bowl. It seemed to be fused to the wood somehow. Might have been two years ago.. I think I even posted here asking if anyone knew what process had been used. Since then I learned that a local furniture company fused a melamine type substance onto the chair backs of a model of chair they made. It involved pre formed plywood and a sheet of this plastic put into a hot press under pressure for a few minutes. Long enough to fuse the material to the wood.
 
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Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I wound up shear scraping with a sharpened bowl gouge, which removed most of the tear-out and had two remaining areas which I flooded with several coats of general bowl finish. The damage is still somewhat visible in those areas, but there is a lot of variation in the wood grain and color so it is not very noticeable. This approach achieved the needed smoothing of the surface for the bowl to function, but it is certainly not a museum piece. At my level of experience, I am satisfied with the result, and now have the added knowledge from you all to do better the next time.
Thanks again to everyone for your advice.
 
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