Awhile back, I wrote about picking up some cherry logs off of the curb, then anonymously leaving a bowl from the wood on the porch of the owner. As I was shuffling things around in the shop, I found another one of the bowl blanks that I had roughed out from that wood. I remembered roughing it out, mostly because of how wet the wood was and how much of it just didn’t look right when I got done. I remember lying to myself at the time that the uncharacteristically dark part was just water and it would look OK when it dried. Well, it was dry, but it wasn’t OK.
The reason half of the bowl blank was so dark and so wet when it was roughed is because the wood was starting to rot. The dark part wasn’t quite to the point where the wood turns to a crumbly paper like consistence, but it was really, really close. Some kind of bug or rot had moved in so as the wood dried and hardened (to some degree) it left a lot of holes behind. I thought I could “turn past” the bad spot, but as the bowl got deeper, the damage got worse. When I was done, I was left with a bowl with damage on at least half of it.
I should have just thrown it away, but I’m afflicted by some disease or mental illness that makes me think I can fix it, whatever “it” is. Because it was already in it’s (near) final shape, using liquid epoxy wasn’t a cost effective option. I decided to try using epoxy putty to fill the holes, thinking I could squish it into the damaged parts well enough to stick in the holes. THAT part, went pretty smoothly. When I got done, about half of the bowl had lumps of red epoxy putty on it, but it looked like it would be a really straightforward fix.
The turning part was where things went wrong. I knew at the start, it would take a little while, because I’d have to “sneak up” on the wood by taking very light cuts to take off just the highest part of the putty and gradually work by way down to the wood. As I got closer and closer, something started to feel weird. Instead of the epoxy putty coming off the tool in long, messy ribbons of what is essentially plastic, I could feel sharp chips hitting my hand. I stopped the lathe to look and quickly realized that I had a problem. The epoxy putty was stronger than the wood it was adhered to, so as the tool started cutting, it would gradually lessen the structural integrity of the surrounding wood to the point where chunks would break off, leaving a new hole in the wood.
Had I stopped, added more putty, let it cure, and tried again, I would have had the same problem until there was no bowl left to turn. After some time thinking, I decided to put away the turning tools, and smooth out the rest of the bowl with sand paper. That worked quite well! The end result was the holes that were still filled had been smoothed out, which was good. The bad side is the good wood that didn’t get a portion of it sanded away is slightly thicker than the rest, which can’t really be seen, but can be felt.
At the end of the day, I decided to put some finish on it and set it aside for awhile, so I can look at it. If it doesn’t get better looking over time, it’ll end up being what holds the tinder at the bottom of the next fire I start.
