Intentional Warping

[Ryan Baker]

I have a couple pieces very similar to that on my kitchen table that I turned a couple weeks ago. Mine are maple, and at least one warped a fair amount. They are natural edge, so the more it warps the better. I agree that yours has probably moved about all it is going to.

As for the pith, I wouldn't worry about it. In my experience, I have not had any problem with cracking from the pith if the thickness is 1/8" or less. Especially if the pith is in the center. Now if you put the pith in the side, that may actually help with the warped edge look you are after.

Maybe see if you can find some green apple?

[neil mackay]

Warping, I have had some success with it. Much of it depends how you cut the timber out of the log.
Heres a couple of small bowls... pen holders/knick knack containers or whatever you want to put in them
The timber is Chinese Elm roughly 4.5"x 4.5" ovality is round about 1" Finished in wipe on poly. The first one continued to warp until is it was similar to the second.
Turned and finished all in one go, warping occurred over a few weeks after wards. Fortunately the cut was right so the warping came out not too bad.

[Ralph Lindberg]

Odd you should mention this. At the suggestion of Dave Schweitzer (http://www.d-waytools.com/index.html) I tried the following this weekend

I took a piece of Bigleaf Maple I had just cut down (two days), the turned it to a 14 by 8 inch bowl and finished turned it to about 3/16.

Then I did Dave's thing. I put it in the "shop" microwave (yes I have an old, large capacity one in the shop) and got it HOT (took about 90 seconds at full power. I then took it out and put a wood-working band-clamp around it, running across the grain. I then drew the clamp as tight as I dared.

The bowl is now drying, pulled oval.

[alex carey]

If you turned it really thin and sanded a lot then most of the moisture might already be gone and thus no warpage.

Sanding can dry it also.

Alex