wood with soft/punky section - strategy?

[Henry W]

Short version: What strategies do you use to turn pieces that have punky/soft wood section? Is this junk wood not worth turning?

Longer version:

A friend provided the lowest section of a maple trunk from his yard tree. This is turning fodder for me to turn larger pieces. I am relatively new to turning (max diameter of 6-7" so far) and several of these blanks are 11-14" in diameter.
The first piece I tried to rough out has nice color variation in it, with some mild spalting. There is also a soft/punky section that is 3-4" wide at the rim that continues to the center of the piece. This portion does not cut well with either a bowl gouge or scraper. Sanding this area does nothing at all (as I would guess most of you know)
Can this soft wood be stabilized with CA glue or something like MinWax wood stabilizer? Is this junk wood not worth turning? What strategies do you use?

Thanks
Henry

(cross posted at WoodCentral)

 

[Gunslinger]

From my limited experience with several punky pieces.
After the first one, I roughed turned down to 1" and did not worry about the tear out. After they were dry I soaked the areas with shellac thinned down 50% with DNA so that it would penetrate the wood well.
Then I re-coated with standard shellac. The biggest problem was the sanding. You can just touch the wood when turning, but a little pressure is required when sanding. This causes the sandpaper to leave "dips" as it goes from the hard to softwood. I did re-coat them again on the last few when I was ready to sand and they came out OK.
(Which means they came out no worse than anything else I turn :gar-La.
They still have minor dips you can feel with your fingers but I finished them with danish oil and steel wool so there is only a matted finish that doesn’t show the dips.
I don’t sell any so if no one wants them for free… no loss.
Mike

 

[DaveO]

I have used thin CA on small punky areas before with great success. Your area sounds like it might be much larger. CA should still work fine but it might take a whole lot.
I have not used Min-wax wood hardener, but have read about folks using it with good results.
I just ran across this with some additional info


Dave

 

[boxxmaker]

I use a water based sanding sealer from ace hardware.Can't think of the name right now.I get the piece pretty much roughed out to the shape I want,then just soak the sealer in an let it dry over night then finish it up,although it may take a few applications,depending on how big the piece is.Its a lot cheaper than CA, I do use the CA on smaller pieces,but I buy it in 16oz bottles.

 

[flyrod444]

I've use Minwax wood hardener which works if you are not using an oil type finish since it want let it soak in where used. I've also use heavy coats of laquar on soft spots with some success. As Mike said sanding is the problem, so I try to get a clean cut on this type wood so that little is required. Unless a piece of wood is really speacial I don't go this trouble though. There is to much sound wood in the world to worry over punky wood unless it is eye candy in my book. One other thing to look at is alot of the time the punky spot is only in one spot or side of the tree. If this is it, just cut your blanks out where the punk is not if possible. A lot of the time I cut a blank out with the end grain going the height of the blank to avoid checks or soft spots.
Happy Turning,
Jack

 

[Henry W]

Thanks all - wood with soft/punky section - strategy?

I have yet to decide, but it seems that the section of soft wood is large enough that I may just have to cut it out and start with smaller pieces, or completely turn this thing in to shavings.

Henry