Advice for Wetting End Grain Fibers for Cleaner Cuts

[robert baccus]

Here's more confusion. i usually use very thin lacquer or SS. it soaks in faster than most liquids and if allowed to dry a few minutes really sets up.------old forester

[Pat Scott]

You might also try using a 3/8" bowl gouge instead of a 1/2" gouge for those rim cuts. A smaller gouge takes a smaller cut (read that as a "finer" cut). Although my favorite gouge is a 1/2" bowl gouge, for the first couple of inches into a bowl I will often use the 3/8" gouge (or even 1/4" depending on the type of bowl and if the rim is undercut and how much undercut).

I rarely soak the end grain. I have before, it does help, but I just don't need to as I can usually get a clean enough cut using a smaller gouge. Mike Mahoney says if you are going to soak the end grain, soak using whatever your finish will be. If you soak with BLO, then your final finish should be BLO also. This eliminates any incompatibility problems with the finish.

[Neil McWilliams]

Please don't smirk, but out of desperation with the same problem turning a cypress bowl, getting fuzzed end grain twice each revolution, I reached out for an old can of petroleum jelly. I was amazed at how well a surface smear of that in the fuzzies worked. You only get one pass; a second pass raises the fuzzies again. It did not penetrate the wood nor did it have any effect on the WOP finish. I subsequently found in trying it on really punky spalted wood that it would get down into the wood but a vigorous wipe with paper towel (Viva seems to work better than any other brand) saturated with VM&P naptha removed it readily, just as it will paste wax.