As someone that enjoys turning wood that has natural "defects", I have to say that the one thing that scares me most is cracks that appear to go all the way across the wood even if they don't appear to go all the way through. In the picture that Leo put the arrows on pointing out the cracks I worry most about the cracks that are on the outside (where the bark used to be) and run all the way across the wood. When I used to split wood to burn I looked for those because I knew it wouldn't take much of a hit with the maul to break it in half there. The same principle applies when it's spinning on the lathe, it's not going to take much to split the rest of the way through. But in my experience, the wood that has caused my most scary moments was wood that I didn't even suspect to have a problem. I have a 3/4" thick particle board shelf above my lathe that has a chunk out of it like a bear bit it. It's a reminder of a piece of elm crotch I was turning into a shallow bowl. It came apart revealing a bark inclusion that was inside the wood that I didn't see at all in the blank. But I still could have prevented it if I would have stopped every few minutes to see how things were progressing. On this piece I remember I was thinking how cool it was that I was hogging out yard long curlies and roughing that bowl like a wild man. You just shouldn't do that. Turning can be inherently dangerous even when all the precautions are taken. But many close calls have made me a believer in the slower and more cautious approach. Even with wood that looks solid as a rock.
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