Stabilising the "dark yucky bits" in walnut

[Warb]

Four years ago, due to a development on a commercial block next to ours, we had to "trim" one side of the canopy of a large old walnut tree. After the small bits had been put through the chipper we ended up with four or five sections up to perhaps 1.2m long and 300mm or so in diameter. None of these had any significant straight sections, I was busy, so they just got piled up at the back of a shed on a pallet. I found them the other day, and with little hope that they would be anything other than firewood I took a chainsaw to them. I was somewhat surprised to discover that after the first 150mm had been hacked off, the cracks disappeared and there is some usable timber....

A few minutes on the bandsaw and I had a section that might yield a bowl. And indeed it did. Whether it's the nature of the particular tree, or the way the timber was "abandoned", but the bowl after a dose of Shellawax Cream is an interesting grey colour. So it's probably worth lopping the remaining timber in to blanks and storing them with a touch more care for a while!

But... After the first bowl, I was left with the other side of that section, so I thought I'd knock out another bowl before I processed the other sections. This piece has a large dark section that proved to be a pig to turn - it just rips up, tears out, you name it. But it won't behave! A bit of searching, including a post from "Dalby" on this forum back in October 2018, and I have found references to using sanding sealer to stabilise such "punky" sections. Is this the best way to proceed? I don't have any sanding sealer and the only thing available locally is Feast Watson Sanding Sealer from Bunnings. Will that work or is there something better?

Any advice gratefully received!

[aldav]

I'm no turner. Feast Watson Sanding Sealer is primarily designed to fill the pores of open grained timbers, it's fairly thick, doesn't really set up hard and I doubt that it soaks into the timber to any extent. It sounds like you need something that is more of an 'invasive' timber stabiliser. From my limited knowledge the pen turning community might be able to help, I'm sure somebody will be along shortly who can be of much more help than me. :D

[NeilS]

CA for small areas.

Epoxy resin for larger areas.

But, sometimes it is not worth the trouble!

[Warb]

CA for small areas.

Epoxy resin for larger areas.

But, sometimes it is not worth the trouble!

I might try CA, I have some of the runny version in the workshop.

Normally I'd look for a better piece of timber, but in this case it's an old heritage listed tree with some sentimental value, so it's worth putting at least _some_ effort into it! Last night I did some more searching and found some products that might help - Wood Juice etc. - but then I got annoyed that over here they cost three times what they do in the US and I try not to support that kind of profiteering.

After a bit more consideration, I suspect these patches are areas of mixed grain orientation, caused by years of random pruning and damage to the tree. It looks like some of that pruning has resulted in internal die-back where branches were removed from their parent branch, 70+ years of multiple neighbours hacking with greater or lesser degrees of competence or care will do that, I guess! My wife tells me it reflects the torrid life of the tree, and it's not an issue. Much as I normally strive for "glassy" finishes, I'm starting to agree.....

I might try some CA, as I said, and even get some decent sanding sealer next time I'm near a suitable supplier, and see how it goes. In the meantime I'll process the remaining timber for storage and further drying!