I looked at the apple wrong....

[Mike Willeson]

...and it cracked. :(

About a month ago I was able to cut some apple. One of the sections was about 12" in diameter.

From one of the sections I cut the pith out so I had two halves. I then cut each half into a round blank that was about 8 inches in diameter and about 3 or 4 inches thick. The outside still had the bark on it. I put anchorseal around the edges of the blanks and then flat side that was the inside of the log was left untreated. I put each blank in its own plastic grocery bag along with some shavings from the chainsaw. They sat like that about a month and every once in a while I would open the bag and flip the blank over and rearrange the shavings.

Today I wanted to rough one out and give it a DNA bath. I mounted a faceplate on the flat side and roughed out the outside, removing the bark and shaping it. It was still very wet. By the time I was done shaping the outside and getting ready to cut the insert for mounting my chuck, the wood had cracked.

Now I'm not sure how to proceed with the other blank.

Suggestions on how to handle the next and future blanks (I have more apple) would be appreciated. I certainly don't want to ruin any more of this nice apple wood.

[Jim Underwood]

If I had put those things in a plastic bag around here, it would have molded and rotted right in the bag...

Putting it in plastic kept it from drying. Then when you pulled it out of the bag, and started cutting it, it began to lose moisture too quickly.

You want it to dry, but slowly, and controlled. Think cool, dark and dry with little air movement. Packed in shavings or paper bag, sealed on the end grain with anchorseal.

The other thing is that when you rough out a blank of green wood, try to keep all edges rounded over. Sharp edges dry quicker, and are more likely to develop cracks.

Last but not least, I hear Apple is really prone to cracking...

Sorry about problems you're having. Hopefully someone can offer a little help here...

[David E Keller]

You're just gonna have to turn it with your eyes closed!:cool:

We don't have apple around here, so I don't have any first hand experience. A nice coating of oil on the outside might help slow the moisture loss while scooping out the middle. I suppose you could wrap it in plastic too. I'll keep my finger crossed!

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have turned some apple and sad to say more pieces are firewood than turned pieces. I had the same thing happen on the last piece I turned. I had finished the outside and was hollowing the inside for what would have been a pretty bowl and it split from the rim down to the center.

[Baxter Smith]

Too bad about the crack. Sounds like you did everything right. Perhaps it had a small crack to begin with that you didn't notice. I have cut some apple that had some cracks on the outside where the bark had split while it was still standing. I keep a spray bottle of water to keep the outside wet while hollowing out the inside but since you didn't even make it that far... Good luck with the next one, you may get better results.