Natural Edge bowl. What went wrong? Picture

[Brad Hammond]

i may be wrong here, but it looks like cherry. my experience with cherry and air drying have not been the most promising. when i've had cherry sawn i've cut it in 9ft lengths to account for the 6in on either end of the board that will definetly check and crack. kiln dried stuff doesnt seem to have this prob, but air dried cherry seems to go crazy and warp.
everything mentioned prior to this has been spot on. dna has been a bowl... life saver for me!

[Alex Elias]

The guy who sold the piece to me told me the name and I'd like to say it was black acacia> definetely not Cherry. I'll keep on trying though

[Brian Poor]

Usually, if you leave a natural edge with bark on it, turning in two stages is not going to work well. The bark and the layer just under it will act as a wick and cause drying to be very uneven.
That in combination with the mass that was left in the wall of the bowl allowed the piece to rip itself apart.

[John Abt]

Alex,

Any number of things could have gon wrong. I recently lost two roughed-out cherry bowls that even cracked ascross the tenon. Some of the more experienced members of my club said that I hadn't made the walls of the bowl a consistant thickness which added to the tension as they dried. I had also used anchor seal and had them in paper bags.

[JerHall]

Last week I grabbed a Madrone bowl with two wide cracks like yours out of my burn pile. Put some blue masking tape on the inside. Grabbed some finely re-ground coffee (used and dried) and filled the crack with the grounds using thin CA. Then I took my biscuit joiner, clamped the bowl to my bench, set the joiner on #20, rested it on my bench at an artistic angle and cut three slots across the cracks. Then I grabbed some black walnut scraps and made some biscuits using the regular ones as a template for one side. It fit like a dream, sanded it all down inside and out thru all the grits. Let it be a soft undulation across the offset of the crack. It's now one of my favorite bowls. The coffee mimics the look of the bark quite well. It was pretty fast process. I made a bunch of extra biscuits. If anyone want's I will post a picture.

Now I am hoping for other bowls to crack, but none have so far. Darn it. Does anyone know how to get them to crack?

[Bill Lantry]

Jerry,

I'd love to see a picture of that...

Thanks,

Bill

[JerHall]

from the process described in my earlier message today. Both outside and inside views. Natural edge Madrone, about 10" dia and 7" high

Jerry

[Steve Mawson]

Very interesting, have never seen anything like that.