Am I wasting my time here ?

[woodfarmer]

roughing out some green horse chestnut into bowl blanks. The two outside pieces seem fine, even cored out a cute little 27cm bowl from the deeper slice. The centre with the pith is showing signs it wants to fall apart. With hind sight I should have cut out the good wood as 3 x3 squares for fruit. Continue or junk?

 

[Bodrighy]

Give the area around the splits a coat of sealer then when dry put some thin CA glue into the split. Finish the outside (at a slower speed than normal and with a face mask on) then wrap a load of cling film around the outside (or you can use a decent strong tape not masking tape, it breaks far too easily) when doing the inside. Go careful and don't go too thin. When you are coring you will find that removing the inner core has released tension so you need to be careful as you take it out as the splits can open. After finishing the shaping you can fill any splits with either epoxy mixed with sawdust etc or CA glue and metal powders. No doubt there are those who would just chuck it but as long as you take care and are aware of the [potential dangers and take precautions you could have a lovely piece at the end of it. Never go over about 750rpm and listen as the sound can tell you what is happening. This little oak burr bowl was made that way.
Hope this helps
Pete

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