Steaming bowls and oval chuck.

[GLENN THOMAS]

I was watching How Its Made the other day and they featured a company that made wooden bowls. After the bowls were cut from the log they said the they would then be steamed as this would hydrate all the pores evenly and draw out the sap. I forget how long they steamed them but it was something less than an hour. I never heard of this nor have I ever read about this. Im wondering if you did this and hydrated the wood evenly if this would help prevent cracking and warping as the wood dried. They didnt go into anymore details and didnt mention anything about returning the bowls after they dried. Just wondering if anyone else has ever done this and if so what does the steaming do?

I also read a post the other day about oval turning and did a little searching on google. If your interested in this sort of thing you need to check out this link. Be sure to watch the videos.
http://www.claycritters.com/lathe/

[Reed Gray]

I would imatine that it does the same thing as boiling does. Some thing to do with lignum (spell?) which holds the wood fibers together. Boiling relaxes the lignum and releases stress. With boiling, you boil for 1 hour per inch of thickness, then let it cool in the water. Good thing, the bowls stay fairly round, and you get very little cracking. Bad thing, for me anyway is that it muddles the colors together. It does work.
robo hippy