I turned this bowl over a year ago. It developed a crack along a defect in the wood. I filled the crack with black epoxy. It took a couple of pourings to get it all filled. One thing I learned the hard way is to seal the end grain before applying black epoxy. Normally I fill cracks before the finish turning. In this case the alder sucked up the black epoxy through the end grain and it didn’t all turn away. It kinda looks like blue stain in one area on the inside. I think we will keep this bowl. It is the largest bowl I have turned on my Jet 1236.

This piece of alder just started to spalt. There are several nice black line circles. I like the mottled color of alder in this stage. Usually I get spalted alder when it is just short of being good top soil. Those pieces don’t turn very good.

<img src="http://www.woodnheart.com/wc/turn/salad/alder11.jpg">
Bowl is 11" wide and 6 1/4" high. The crack is not very wide but it is 7" long.
<img src="http://www.woodnheart.com/wc/turn/salad/alder12.jpg">
The side starts 1/4" at the rim and increases to ½" at the bottom.
<img src="http://www.woodnheart.com/wc/turn/salad/alder13.jpg">
Finish is Woodcraft polyurethane oil. I let the first coat dry about a week. The alder absorbs a lot of finish and I wanted the oil to cure before saturating it again.

Kind of an ugly shape but it will hold alota salad.

Thank you for looking.

Dave Smith

Eating my greens in style in Longview, WA.