Update on bowl drying in just a paper bag

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Background: I ran across an article, and the author claims to have turned hundreds of bowls and he does not use anything (DNA, PET, wax etc.) to prevent cracking. He claimed to have used just about every different trick that has been discussed here.

This is his theory. NOT mine. Just a plain paper bag, with the shavings, put it on a wire shelf for good circulation. So I gave it a shot. I rough turned some earpod wood, into small cannisters. 7" diameter, half inch thick except for the tenon. I WISH I had a big lathe. Put it in the bag with a couple handfuls of shavings. 1 under the blank and 1 over. Left to dry for 1 month. (ONLY) I was pretty impressed. Did not crack. Turned it today. Felt pretty dry, except for the part where the tenon is. Maybe another 2 or 4 weeks would have been better. But, I wanted to test out how fast I could finish turn the blank........ I have another pair to turn later.

Oh, earpod wood is a close relative of monkeypod. It's fairly light wood, not a hardwood in any stretch of imagination. Open grained, difficult to seal the pores.

I can update the next pair if anyone is interested.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Just the way I have been doing this for a long long time, without the shavings and no circulating air for mine, works for me :-))

[Jim C Bradley]

As they use to say on Laugh In, Veddy interesting.

Enjoy,
Jim

[Steve Schlumpf]

When I first started turning bowls I would rough them out, cover them in wet shavings and double brown paper bag them. I waited for 6 months for the wood to dry - and some did, some didn't and most of it cracked! I tried DNA and found that it worked faster and with a lot less failures.

In all honesty, when I first started turning bowls I had no idea of what I was doing and at the time there was no one to show me. I roughed out a bowl close to 10% thickness and then bagged it as mentioned above. Knowing now what I do about bowls - the first bowls I roughed out were 10% - 15% thick but were not consistent due to poor tool control. I left sharp edges which is a sure fire way to start checks and I turned a lot of wood with knots in them because I thought they looked cool! Well, checks start in the knots and work their way out! Duh!

I have to believe that as long as you slow down the rate of water evaporation within the wood - you will be successful - no matter what method you use.

[David Walser]

Kyle,

I'm glad you found a method that works for you. With regard to what works, I think a lot depends on the local environment. Hawaii has a different environment than, say, Arizona. Given the humidity in Hawaii, it might take a lot longer for a bowl to air dry than it would at the same temperature in Arizona. So, a brown paper bag might work very well in one location and not so well in another. DNA soaking might be overkill in one location and just the ticket in another.

Here in Arizona, the wood's dry before the tree hits the ground...

[Reed Gray]

Your local weather has a lot to do with how you dry things. Over there, in the islands, you have high humidity, so things will dry a lot slower than in the Arizona mountains. Slower drying equals less stress. In a bag with shavings controls the humidity, keeping it higher, but it was inconsistant for me. My most difficult wood to dry is Pacific Madrone. Also, turning thick for returning after it drys is a lot different and more difficult than turning thin to final thickness. With the Madrone, even double bagging wasn't reliable. If I added shavings, I would get a lot of spots on the wood which weren't really attractive. Now, I make sure to round over the rim of the bowl edges, and then wrap the outside in a couple layers of newspaper, and secure that to the rim of the bowl with some of the stretch plastic film that you wrap boxes up with on pallets. Cut out the paper on the inside of the bowl. Success rate is almost 100%.
robo hippy

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Ah. Humidity makes sense. I guess thing dry slowly here, and that method may work, and not work elsewhere.... Maybe I should try DNA next. But I'm cheap.

But, it can still crack. I just had a nice cannister made of orchid tree crack. I finished it like 2 months ago..... Tried to glue the crack together. Gave it to my 5 year old. She was thrilled.

[Barbara Gill]

Just the way I have been doing this for a long long time, without the shavings and no circulating air for mine, works for me :-))

Me too Leo. It never occurred to me that this might be a lost method. I rarely have a bowl crack. I leave them about a year.
Humidity does play an important part. My shop is not heated or cooled and the humidity in VA is usually high.

[Jack Mincey]

I use the brown bag method with very good luck here in Western North Carolina. I also put some in a card board box to dry and have great luck with this as well. I think the environment has some to do with this method, but a consistant wall thickness is key to any method working as well. I tried the DNA method once when I first started turning green wood and had a lot more cracking than I do now without it. This was due to my lack of skill as a turner, not the DNA method. My wall thickness has become more consistant over time and this is one of the main reasons for my bowls not cracking I think. Another big key is to make sure there are no checks in the roughed out bowl when it is first turned. If there is a check or crack in the bowl before drying starts there is a 100% chance of the bowl cracking. I have turned large bowls down to small bowls just to remove a check in the wood that was there when I started.
Jack

[Rob Cunningham]

Since you are in Hawaii, maybe look up Ron Kent. He has a method that involves a dish soap/ water mixture that he has been successful with. You can find info about it on his website.

[Joe Pfeifer]

I'm in Illinois and I use the brown paper bag method. On 3/5 I put an 8" box elder roughed bowl in a bag with shavings. On 4/3 I took it out of the bag and put it on a shelf in my heated basement. I weighed it weekly and on 4/13 it was 11 3/8 oz. and today (4/28) it's still 11 3/8 oz. I think it's time to get to my shop!

[Rich Souchek]

From Houston (hot and humid), the paper bag without any shavings works good on everything except big thick red oak rough turnings. I throw the bagged bowl on the pile in a corner of the shop floor.
Red oak bowls over 12" and 1-1,25" thick keep cracking, believe they just dry to fast. Adding shavings just causes mold to grow and ends up with moding, ugly colored cracked oak rough turnings.
Try whatever method youwant and find out what works for you.
Rich S.