Help on cracked wooden bowls

[richardlbt]

Hi all,

A friend of mine came back from NZ with a couple of wooden bowls. The bowls have stated to crack at the knots and along the grain due to the heat and high humidity here in Singapore.

How and what can I do to stop the bowls from cracking further and what should I use to fill n the cracks. They would like to use the bowls as salad bowls.

Thanks for the assistance.

[dai sensei]

Use thin CA in the joints to stop the cracks. It depends on how big the cracks are, you can fill with resin/epoxy/CA of appropriate thickness with: coffee grinds/metal filing/pigments/dyes/glitter etc etc it is really up to your personal taste.

Do a search on "filling cracks" for previous discussions and examples

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

If where you are has vastly different humidity to where the bowls were originally turned... well... be aware that filling the cracks my not stop them. It may stop the current ones from becoming worse, but others may appear in the next 'weakest' areas.

It's the timber soaking up moisture from (or losing it into) the air, a bit like a sponge, until it has roughly the same moisture content as the air around it.

Me, I'd put the beggars up on a shelf somewhere and forget about them for a while. Let the cracks grow until the timber reaches it's new EMC and they stop all by themselves. Then look at patching it with epoxy or similar. If the bowl cracks in two, that's not necessarily such a bad thing; it makes it easier to fit a couple of dowels or pins to strengthen the repair.

[pommyphil]

Air conditioning is a killer, will take it down to 1-2%mc then out into steamy tropical air. Best of luck........ Phil

[powderpost]

Cracking is usually caused by moving from a high humidity to a dry climate. Moving from a dry climate to high humidity won't cause cracking. The cracking more likely came from timber that was not well seasoned. I would store it in a card board box full of shavings or many layers of paper, until dry. If you try this do not use newspaper as the print will appear on the timber. Continuous weighing on a weekly basis will let you know when then wood has stabilized, then worry about filling the cracks as has been mentioned previously.

Jim

[hughie]

Cracking is usually caused by moving from a high humidity to a dry climate. Moving from a dry climate to high humidity won't cause cracking. The cracking more likely came from timber that was not well seasoned. I would store it in a card board box full of shavings or many layers of paper, until dry. If you try this do not use newspaper as the print will appear on the timber. Continuous weighing on a weekly basis will let you know when then wood has stabilized, then worry about filling the cracks as has been mentioned previously.

Jim

I agree with Jim and having lived Singapore and NZ. The humidity is higher there I would think than NZ although it can be very high in NZ as well at times. Are using aircon or ceiling fans? the aircon will change the humidity. If they are put in the sun warping/cracking will occur irrespective of the Singapore humidity , as the heat simply moves the timber faster than it can absorb and so cracks.

[richardlbt]

Thanks guys for all the replies. Will let the bowl dry out and then take it from there.

Cheers

[Allen Neighbors]

I was interested in reading all the answers in this post, because I was curious what everyone else does for the problem of cracking bowls. I've tried just about all of the things mentioned, except that I never had the sense to wait 'til it's settled.
But I haven't read any posts that suggest not using them for foodstuffs after they've cracked, because it is so hard to keep down the germs. (I've heard that it is too hard to keep them clean after they've cracked, because it seems that there are always minute cracks that appear between the filling and the wood after a few washings.)
Any comments on this? Just curious, not trying to start an argument.