what direction to take with this punky birch HF? Toward the fireplace?

[George Overpeck]

Hey all - I made this thing and I'm not sure what to do with it. I wanted to try the half elmers/half water trick and my only piece of punky wood was quite large. I have a full tree of it and some of the color in more distant sections is pretty amazing, and this was my most disposable piece since the rest was going to be reserved for elmers/birch masterpieces.

I turned the profile, soaked it, dried it for 2 days and when I did my second pass I didn't have any ability to make the punky wood cut right. But the wood surrounding it was cutting pretty nicely and since it was so light and easy to cut I decided to hollow it. A piece of the shoulder where a branch had rotted out opened to make the big hole which was convenient for getting shavings out so the time commitment was a little less also and I ended up making it fairly thin since I could see inside well.

a few questions - should I have soaked it longer? Dried it longer? Hollowed it and soaked it from inside? Does this method work on wet wood or does it need to be dry? It occurred to me that maybe one could saturate it with DNA to force the moisture out and then do the glue soaking and get a better penetration. Thoughts?

On the form - would you knock the punky walls out and make it a open hollow form? Or use something (fingernail would work fine) to accentuate and even the roughness in the punky section? Use a superglossy finish on the good wood and blowtorch on the bad wood? Saturate with CA and sand? Start turning pens?

thanks for looking, thanks for ideas - George

[Fred Belknap]

George I tried the soak in glue and water thing. I had some Titebond II that was old so I mixed it and water together. The blank was hickory and it wasn't quite as punky as yours but it was tearing out. I let it soak three days, stirring the mix occasionally. I let it dry for a week and it was heavy and gummy. I decided to dry it in the microwave. I think I went three days putting it in the microwave for a minute or so when I would go past. It got to feeling pretty good so I decided to turn it. It came out remarkable well. Had to use real sharp tools and a negative grind scraper on it. It sanded really great. That is my experience with the glue soak but don't know if the same would apply to your case. Mine is a HF similar to yours except for the window in the side.:)

[Richard Coers]

If your internal work is good, you might think about knocking, or carving out that entire section. Is there figure or spalt lines of the other side that you like? If the other side is plain, BTU's might be the way to go. I bet that thing was way out of balance while turning. Good luck!

[David E Keller]

I don't have any experience with the glue soak, but hopefully Wally Dickerman will weigh in with his knowledge.

As for saving the form... I suppose you could use a burr to remove the punky area and increase the size of the defect. It's a pretty form, but the punky areas look like they're a bit too far gone for my skills.

[Wally Dickerman]

George, to be successful with the glue soaking you must rough turn the vessel or bowl inside and out. The idea is to thoroughly soak the punky area with the solution. Just doing the outside isn't enough. You didn't say how long you soaked it. I've always rough turned to a little less than an inch before soaking for about 24 hours. Longer may be better but I haven't tried it. Two days isn't long enough to dry the piece. Two weeks or longer is better.

Not all of my attempts to firm up the wood enough to turn the piece have been successful. Some wood is jut too far gone.

[Steve Schlumpf]

George - I really like the form!

Just me - but I would finish turn it, knock out all the punky areas and burn the new edge. With that much wood missing - folks would wonder how you turned it!

[David DeCristoforo]

There is a wide gray area between "punky" or "spalted" wood and "rotten" wood! Personally, I'm with Steve. You have gone this far... might as well go the distance. FWIW, I have used the glue soak on a couple of pieces and it does a nice job of firming up the punky areas. But they are still punky areas and there is little one can do to restore wood that has rotted to the point of disintegration.

[Curt Fuller]

I've always been one to like a little something rustic in my turnings. If I were working on this I think I would saturate the punky area with CA glue to solidify it, but knowing that it's still going to be somewhat soft. Then I would just get the solid areas sanded as well as possible and leave the rough texture on the punky spots with a minimal amount of sanding. The contrast between the light colored solid birch and the darker colored punky parts along with the contrast in smooth and rough textures would be something I would like. Then add the nice natural edged voids and it would really be something I like. I can't offer any advice on the white glue soak because I've never done it. But I think you have a spectacular HF in the works if you can save that punky wood.