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End grain checking

D

Don Armour

Joined
Jan 31, 2021
Messages
34
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6
Location
Jacksonville, FL
See pict. This is a hickory blank I bought about 2 yrs ago. Was coated in wax and stored outside but under cover in northern FL. My shop is too small to be able to store everything. And no…… I can’t do a bigger shop

Turned the outside two days ago and left in lathe to do some final shear scraping before sanding, reversing and turning inside.

Checks not present two days ago. Hard to tell how deep they are/will get.

Should I be worried?
Did I do something wrong?
Anything I can do?

I don’t mind the visual aspects - just don’t want it to blow up and/or fall apart after done, finished etc.

Thanks in advance for any info or guidance

04084DD3-BF0E-4D94-9585-9AEE0DF436B3.jpeg
 
When leaving the partially cut blank more than a few hours, I put it in brown paper bag, preferably filled with wood shavings. Sometimes helps.

From the moment it's cut, it starts to dry. When thickness varies, unevenly dries.
 
Like taxman said above, as soon as you cut, the wood starts to dry and internal tensions are released. Hickory is one of those wood where this happens very quickly. I usually wrap the exterior with plastic wrap if I’m not able to hollow immediately. FYI, with these checks, I don’t believe you have anything to worry about re the blank exploding.
 
Thinking about this, I realized there may be significant differences based on location. I'm editing my post to include location and shop conditions.

I live is SE Florida, high temps and humidity. Shop is always air conditioned.
 
Don Armour said:
Turned the outside two days ago and left in lathe to do some final shear scraping before sanding, reversing and turning inside.
Click to expand...
if I leave a turning for a few minutes I spritz it with water. If it’s longer I wrap it in a plastic bag.
I don’t want to dry it on the lathe. I also very rarely sand wet wood. It can be done with abranet.
i almost Always sand one time turnings off the lathe after the wood has dried. 3 days for a 3/16” wall
Don Armour said:
Was coated in wax and stored outside but under cover in northern FL.
Click to expand...
Your method kept the blank from drying Out and cracking - you have proof the wood was still wet When you left it out.


is it safe?
one never knows for sure what lies below the surface.
from what I see in the photo it appears to have enough structural integrity to turn.
cannot tell for sure.
what I can see is a surface that will likely show cracks - a look I don’t Care for.

as you get more experience you will be able to do the rough turning in 10-20 minutes on a piece that size.
dry it and return it a liesure.

for a one time turning you will be able to finish it on the with a sand able surface in 15-30 minutes.

takes a lot of practice to get there. You will if you keep turning
 
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Any exposure to air equals drying, regardless of your location, temp and humidity.
The blank, sealed in wax was safe-almost no moisture loss which equals almost no drying which equals no movement or cracks.
By removing the wax and then leaving it you introduced uncontrolled moisture loss, which equals uncontrolled drying which equals uncontrolled shrinking and moving, which gave you some nice cracks.
Putting your work in paper bags or shavings gives some control of moisture loss, and slower movement. It‘s still movement and increased internal stresses. Your piece maybe won’t crack, but it’s moving, likely be out-of-round when you get back to it.

Or, you could put it into an environment very much like the wax it had been sealed in. A plastic bag works fine, wrapped around the piece and chuck. To do this, always, is how you ensure that your work will be exactly as you left it, this time and every time.

Make it a habit, like wearing seat belts. Going in the house? Take 15 seconds and wrap the bag. I do this for all work, not just rough turning. Any open wood is actively adjusting to the environment, and adjusting means moving.

My pieces, like all of ours, will move. I choose to let mine move after I’ve finished my work, not during.
 
You are obviously new to working with wood so it would be an advantage to do some research into the effects of moisture loss in wood.
The 2 most important shrinkage percentages are tangential (hickory pecan 8.9% Shagbark 10.5%) and radial (hickory pecan 4.9% Shagbark 7.0%).
The exposure to air will result in rapid loss in the end grain areas and less so in the side grain areas.
The wood shrinks as it dries and that causes the checks because the internal wood does not dry at the same rate so something has got to give and your bowl proves that.
Don't forget wood will equalize with it's environment and kiln drying and most finishes will not stop that.
 
The radial checks are ordinary, but what do you make of the crack that is vertically oriented in the photo? It's not exactly ring shake. It appears oriented along what I assume are saw cut lines.
 
If that was cut 2 years ago, those cracks were likely already there, but too small to see or the blank was too rough to see them. I usually cut at least two inches off an older rough sawn blank before turning it.
 
Dean Center said:
The radial checks are ordinary, but what do you make of the crack that is vertically oriented in the photo? It's not exactly ring shake. It appears oriented along what I assume are saw cut lines.
Click to expand...
That is something I have never seen but I have never turned a bowl from hickory or left any bowl uncovered without the inside turned.
Probably from 2 days uncovered in a warm climate
 
Don Armour said:
Should I be worried?
Did I do something wrong?
Anything I can do?
Click to expand...
Don you might be interested in a thread I started on green wood turning
it contains 3 parts of a demo I do for local clubs.

a slides show overview of working with wood movement
a video - rough turning a bowl
a video - returning a dried bowl

Working with green wood

The August 2015 AAW JOURNAL has great article by David Ellsworth on working with green wood. This is followed by 11 marvelous ways turners turned cracks into features. One of David's themes is that the deck is stacked against newer woodturners successfully working with wet wood. Might be a nice...
www.aawforum.org www.aawforum.org
 
Of note if you do wrap an unfinished bowl in plastic Note that even overnight if the chuck is also wrapped or even in contact with wet wood it could rust or develop some degradation.
 
Second the plastic wrap or bag. It isn't going to mold in a day, so don't worry about that. Some wood like Ash cracks quickly so the water spritz may be a good idea.
 
If I am going to leave a green turning even foe a couple hours I grab a plastic grocery bag and wrap it with. I am sure that the stretch wrap would work but we do eat in my house therefore we have the bags in abundance.
 
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