End grain turning with the pith ?

I saw a small bowl turning where the guy had turned it with the end grain showing (pith was included on both sides like a bullseye). Very interesting turning and nice.......wondering how he did it without the pith or heartwood cracking or checking.........anybody else out there turning end grain like this? and the way it warpped was very nice.......anyway the control of the woods shrinking would be of concern i would think.....??

Dan

In my limited experience, sometimes you get lucky and the pith doesn't crack much, if at all. It helps if the piece is turned pretty thin while the wood's still fresh. Also, sometimes the pith can be stabilized somewhat with CA glue, (Although if the wood wants to move, it's going to.)

Here are a coupe threads about a piece of bunya pine I turned in end grain orientation a while back.

The original thread:
http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11167

A follow-up thread after I tweaked the rim of the vessel:
http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11567

It had five symmetrical branches coming out of the trunk, plus the main pith down the center of the log (ending up at the bottom of the vessel). I turned it to a finished thickness of about 1/8" while it was still green. None of these pith areas ended up with more than hairline cracks.

Dan I have turned a couple like that. One was a chinaberry wood. It started to crack on both piths even before I finished turning it. So I took water thin CA and soaked it from the center of the pith about a 1" diameter circle out both inside and outside the bowl. I finished sanding it, finished it and it is sitting on the kitchen table holding fruit with no further cracking. I did both bowls this way and both are fine.