Fudge.

Someone asked me the other day how long it takes this stuff to dry.

Well, wood dries about and inch a year. Give or take, depending on the humidity and where the wood is. Optimally, it'd be out of the elements, off the ground, and out of direct sunlight.

When I rough out bowls, I have about a 60% success rate. Which has dropped since moving from Atlanta to Seattle, I've noticed. Mostly (I'm guessing here) due to my lack of knowledge. A lot of times, I'm trying to keep the pith on a bowl's wall, or too close to the rim -- and that's the area that moves the most; for me any way.

That means, after a year of laying around our tiny garage, I dig some bowls out only to find a few of them have cracked or split. (which is really maddening, with the amount of time some of them take to rough out.) But, that's the deal. The price of learning.

Here, I had several large Cherry bowls set aside. These two didn't make it. One didn't bother me, as it split before I even got it off the lathe during rough-out (see the repairing rim). But the other -- aaaaaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhh!

Why did it split there? Why so drastic? Is it done? I'd need a grain expert to tell me.

I could just throw them out; most turners I know would. But I think I'm gonna try an experiment. I'm going to continue roughing these out towards finish, then pack the cracks with some sort of colored resin, and finish turning them.

Will it work? Dunno. One way to find out. And the mistakes are just as valuable as the successes in this. The knowledge is what I'm after.