I turn a lot of cherry, and it seems no more prone to tearing than other
domestics, perhaps it's just more noticeable.

I suspect it happens where you're turning the corner between wall and
bottom. That's where I have the problem. I found out early that a scraper
was _not_ the answer. If it's a steep transition, and I suspect it is
because you said you couldn't power sand the area, the best I've found is to
use a pointy gouge or the narrowest bowl gouge I own, freshly sharpened,
beginning in the wall area, cutting point and left, rotating clockwise
through the transition to cut point and right. Two things you want to avoid
are riding the tool on the wood, where it might crush the fibers at the
early/late transition areas, and _ever_ cutting nose up. The nose of the
gouge should be as close to vertical as possible, making the shavings
tightly coiled. Your description of "short curls" tells me you're cutting
nose up, where you take a shaving on face grain, and break it on endgrain.
This is more or less normal for some brittle porous woods like oak, but
cherry and other short-grained woods give continuous curls to a properly
placed gouge. As a matter of fact, I have to watch the finishing cuts on the
opposite side of the bowl, because the shavings accumulate in a huge mat at
the gouge.

If the transition is not so steep, I love a flat forged gouge for the final
pass(es). With a steady, even thin-walled turnings can be cut
continuously, though you have to take care not to dig in near the center.
Best to leave a button to scrape or sand.

As to saturating the surface fibers with this or that, I have no experience.
The first time I examined the torn areas, I figured out it was caused by
picking up the ends of the fibers with a gouge cutting too broadly and nose
up, and modified my technique to cut a narrow face at an angle that cuts
through rather than pulling up the fibers. I never plan any particular
finish in advance, which means I might make a bad choice of what to use to
set up the fibers, so the only set is the one between 180 and 220, and that
with water.

"Barry N. Turner" wrote in message
.. .
I turned a small cherry bowl (3" deep x 9" in diameter) yesterday on my
Jet
Mini lathe. The cherry blank was green, but has been air-drying in my
shop
for about a year. When I began to turn it, I got short curls not long
shavings, if that gives some idea of the relative moisture content.

When I began to sand the interior of the bowl, I noticed that I had some
tear-out on end grain. I immediately went back to the scraper.

The shape of the bowl in this area of tear-out eliminates any
possibility of power sanding. How do I get rid of the tear out? Any
suggestions will be greatly appreciated.