# Cracks In Bowl, How to Fix



## spudman49 (Mar 14, 2009)

Fellas, I have been turning some madrone for bowls, problem is, there have been bracks in the wood. Question is, how do I fix them, do you use glue with sawdust or small shavings of wood. Just asking. Thanks for any reply. Regards The Spudman:thumbsup:


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## PTownSubbie (Mar 6, 2009)

I don't think that you will have much success in putting glue and sawdust in the cracks. At least you won't be able to make it look quite right, in my opinion.

However, you can stop/slow down the check by using some CA glue. Spray the two sides of the bowl with some lacquer. This is to protect the wood from the CA glue. Then put some CA on and inside the crack. The glue should cause the check to stop or at least slow. If you don't laquer the bowl before you put the CA on it, the bowl surface will suck up the CA and it will look differently from the rest after it is finished. The laquer that is applied will easily come off when you sand and finish it.

Hope this helps. Pictures would definately help in our assistance.


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## john lucas (Sep 18, 2007)

Most of the time they will show. Sometimes you can get lucky and close the crack if the bowl is thin and it won't show but 90 percent of the time the crack will show. If it's a large crack I find the powdered sawdust looks like you packed it with pressed wood. Not a good look. In those cases I prefer to highlight the crack by using colored epoxy. I use black the most but sometimes will use brown to match a knot if that's where the crack is. I find a darker color for the crack usually works better than light. 
I use powdered tempera paint or analine dye to color the epoxy. For smaller cracks you can pack a contrasting wood or even coffee grounds in the crack. Wet it with thin CA and then fill any spaces with medium CA. 
On really large cracks I prefer to just leave them. I carve the edges so they are cleaner and then burn them with a micro torch. I sand away the burn that always bleeds over to the outside of the bowl. For really big cracks where I want to save the bowl and use it more as an art piece I patch the crack with a butterfly patch, usually of contrasting wood.


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