Green Wood Stabilizer

American Woodworker, April, 2000

I like turning bowls from green wood. I go out to the back 40, cut myself a sizable chunk of wood and go to it. What I don't like is when the finished product cracks so badly I can see through it. Pentacryl, from Preservation Solutions, is the answer for turners, carvers or anyone who wnats to stabilize green wood.
Pentacryl is a polymer compound that soaks into wood. It can be brushed or sprayed on, or you can immerse the wood in a bucketful. Immersion gives you the best results. Use the stuff right out of the bottle - no mixing required. And unlike PEG, it's a liquid at room temperature; so no heating is required. Total time for complete absorption depends on the wood, but plan on about one day of immersion per inch of meterial thickness. Once it's into the wood, Pentacryl stabilizes the wood cells to reduce or eliminate both warping and cracking.