Replies

1. 
   pantalones868 | May 30, 2023 02:13am | #1

   Quickly drying them will most likely cause them to split. Air drying will take time even in a pretty well controlled environment. As in ,check back in a year!
   What you want them to do is stabilize. What is your intention for them? I suppose these burl caps are being marketed with wood turners in mind. Turners turn green wood all the time and is preferred by many. While it won't help much in speeding up the drying time you can stabilize them by soaking them in a solution of polypropylene glycol, often sold as PEG 1000. If I remember correctly it was a solution of something like 30 to 1 and left to soak for several days. A bowl blank ,for example, soaked in a PEG solution and then turned " green " into a bowl will have less,no quarantees expressed or implied, tendency to crack as they dry. The actual drying or seasoning of the finished bowl will still take weeks or months even to become fully dry. I did some very thin walled , like 3/16", bowls once and used PEG treatment on the wood. The round bowl would then as it dried change shape ,sometimes to an ellipse and sometimes to more mobius shapes and hopefully not blow up in the process. Some did crack but more survived than failed.

2. 
   bradleyheathhays | May 30, 2023 05:36pm | #2

   Thanks for the advice. I had forgotten about hearing about the PEG suggestion some time ago. I'll be turning the piece.

   Luckily I just found out I've got a vacuum kiln here in town!