There really is no solution to stop the cracking. The removal of the outside surface on a wood lathe releases internal stress in a radial fashion, that is what is causing the cracking as the wood grain is so shrunk down in size due to age that it does not have any flexure to it whatsoever.
I turned a large diameter piece of walnut which was about 50 years old since cut. It checked in several places. What I did was take Polyurethane glue and fill those cracks, the wet a rag and moisten the entire exposed survace. That filled the gap entirely as Polurethane expands about 18% by volume. I cut the oozed off poly with a knife and finished the piece into a spiral about 36 inches long and 5 inches in diameter. In doing so, I had several of these stress cracks appear and I fixed everyone of them as above. The piece has set in our den for about 10 years thus far and no evidence of any further check cracks. Final finish was Oil stain and clear poly.
Yes, there is a way to keep old wood from cracking. In a dry climate such as living in the desert or anyplace where low humidity is a problem, you need to keep a humidifier in the room with the furniture. This keeps the wood from drying out and cracking.
This sounds like the wood is case hardened, that is the outside is drier than the inside because of rapid initial drying. My reccomendation would be for you to use a wood stabilizer, like Pentacryl http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=1793 . I’m not certain that it would absolutely serve your purposes, but it seems to me that a product that is designed to prevent green wood from checking when it dries might also help keep wood together when the forces are acting in only a slightly different manner. And, if it doesn’t work you’re only out $18 and one more piece of wood that would have cracked anyway.
wood enamel and finisher
There really is no solution to stop the cracking. The removal of the outside surface on a wood lathe releases internal stress in a radial fashion, that is what is causing the cracking as the wood grain is so shrunk down in size due to age that it does not have any flexure to it whatsoever.
I turned a large diameter piece of walnut which was about 50 years old since cut. It checked in several places. What I did was take Polyurethane glue and fill those cracks, the wet a rag and moisten the entire exposed survace. That filled the gap entirely as Polurethane expands about 18% by volume. I cut the oozed off poly with a knife and finished the piece into a spiral about 36 inches long and 5 inches in diameter. In doing so, I had several of these stress cracks appear and I fixed everyone of them as above. The piece has set in our den for about 10 years thus far and no evidence of any further check cracks. Final finish was Oil stain and clear poly.
Yes, there is a way to keep old wood from cracking. In a dry climate such as living in the desert or anyplace where low humidity is a problem, you need to keep a humidifier in the room with the furniture. This keeps the wood from drying out and cracking.
This sounds like the wood is case hardened, that is the outside is drier than the inside because of rapid initial drying. My reccomendation would be for you to use a wood stabilizer, like Pentacryl http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=1793 . I’m not certain that it would absolutely serve your purposes, but it seems to me that a product that is designed to prevent green wood from checking when it dries might also help keep wood together when the forces are acting in only a slightly different manner. And, if it doesn’t work you’re only out $18 and one more piece of wood that would have cracked anyway.