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Wood turners, please help!

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January 18, 2025, 10:09 AM
irreverent
Wood turners, please help!
I recently received a very old wooden bowl. I’m not sure what type of wood.. It was extremely dry and very dirty.
Once I got home with it, I decided to scrub it out so I could start using it. I set it in the sink and put some soap in it, added some water, and took a moment to let a dog out- while I was letting the dog out. I heard a crack/snapping noise. When I walked over to the sink, the bowl had snapped in a couple of places around the top rim. Is there anything I can do to repair this?
I feel really stupid to have put it in water, but I never thought it do this. I guess I had no idea how dry it was, and what I could’ve done differently. It’s still usable, but I would love to fix these cracks. Three of them are relatively small, and I could probably use Wood filler, one not so much.
For the moment, I just oiled the bowl with butchers block conditioner to try and stop any further cracking.
Should I soak it more and try to glue it? It’s not very flexible. And one of the cracks. I guess I would describe it as it heaved up?
Any ideas or thoughts on this would really be appreciated. Thanks.


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January 18, 2025, 02:34 PM
james_1234
I have been turning bowls over 10 years. My experience is once it is cracked it not easily fixed. I have had the best success with epoxy, not wood glue or super glue. To eliminate the crack from spreading I will use a piece of wood running perpendicular to the crack, bowtie piece(s) of wood will make the repair permanent and will look nice. That takes a lot of time, epoxy might work and is way easier.
January 19, 2025, 07:07 AM
irreverent
Shoot. I was so hoping I could just soak it in the bottom of a 5 gal bucket for a month and it would all swell back into place.
Thank you for your response.


__________________________

"Trust, but verify."