For bowl turning, I’m always on the search for wood. And, when someone gives me some, I like to give them a bowl from their wood in return. Here, I want to turn a bowl from elm for a son’s friend who gave me the wood.

However, it turned out that the wood had a lot of cracks – not from drying – the wood had been sawn in half thru the pith, waxed, and sealed in plastic bags.

Initially, my plan was to rough turn the bowl then let it dry before finishing.

As I cut into the wood, the cracks appeared more and bigger.

First, I wasted off the top 1.5 inches to get rid of some real bad ones at the top.

Then as I hollowed the bowl, the cracks were apparent thru much of the end grain sides.

I decided to finish the bowl all at once but then the cracks became worse. I feared the end grain areas of the sides would disintegrate

Then I decided to cut down the sides until I found solid wood….

I wound up with a dish. That’s a real downer. I don’t know whether to be happy with the dish or sad that I wasted so much time and wood?