Fred Holder
I decided to use the Alcohol Drying of Wet Wood technique that Dave Smith developed and highly recommends. In the past I’ve had excellent results with it.
Because of its size, I turned an end grain vase out of a piece of the root. The rough turned wall thickness was about 5/8". I soaked it in alcohol that we’ve used several times before for 24 hours. I removed it from the alcohol and let it dry off for a short while and then wrapped it in brown grocery sack on the outside and top rim, leaving the inside open and upright. I weighed it as soon as it was wrapped, here are the results:
Date Weight (grams)
5-4-06 450
5-5-06 400
5-6-06 365
5-7-06 320
5-8-06 310
5-9-06 265
5-11-06 240
5-13-06 200
5-14-06 190
5-15-06 190
After weighing on the 15th, I final turned it. The foot was still round so that I could use the chuck tenon originally used to turn the piece. There were no cracks or checks. The piece has lost 58 percent of its original weight in ten days
setting in my shop. It was out of round by less that 1/16 inch. The wood was very dry when turned.

I hope this helps.