Advise on filling/repairing end grain cracks

[Steve Benford]

I have a 2 piece body im making out of walnut. After rough cutting my body all was well. After cleaning up with router some decent sized cracks appeared. These cracks are well in from the end of the board the body was made from. Its like the were inside the board. Masked in a cloak of walnutness. Im looking for opinions to stabilize these crackS to make sure they don't get worse. Some are really deep as shown in the pic with the razor blade. Im not concerned with hiding the repair. I will end up filling the cracks, so any advise on that would be appreciated as well.

Thanks!
steve

[Daryl Kosinski]

Cracks like that are going to be all through the piece of wood, you have a weakened unstable piece of wood. Time to select another piece of wood. Save this one for small pieces. If it were mine I would not waste ant more time on it.

[Mark Swanson]

Daryl is right, the cracks will keep on moving in no matter what you do.

[Jason Rodgers]

Wow, I've only seen cracks like that in something that was cut sopping wet and dried in a hurry. Where did you get this slab of walnut? Looks kiln dried by the grey color. Maybe kilned poorly?

[Michael Lewis]

Firewood

[Steve Benford]

Thanks for the replies so far. I realize this body is shot. Ive already made a new body for the customer. This one still has value to me however. So, IF you were to attempt to do a fix of some sort what would it be?

Thanks!
STEVE

[Jason Rodgers]

Use a white pencil to outline the cracks as they are now. Let it sit through seasonal swings for a couple years. If it doesn't move, flood with epoxy. If it's for your own uses, go crazy.

And then still consider the BTU potential as firewood.

[Michael Lewis]

If you intend using this wood cut it to size and see if it holds together. If it does, then just use it. It may require the epoxy flood treatment for structural reasons, or it may have some rustic charm if the checks show. I still think it's firewood.

[Patrick Hanna]

Steve, unfortunately a piece like this just surfaces from time to time. I don't know whether you've got what I call "wind shakes" in the middle of the board, or whether it was improperly dried. I am pretty sure the end cracks are "checks" that happen at the ends of many boards--even when they are sealed and carefully dried. If this piece was mine, I would store it as has been suggested. Then I would probably saw it up into smaller pieces to eliminate the cracks and use the remaining wood for tool handles, knobs, heel caps, etc.

[Patrick Hanna]

Steve,
I forgot to mention something which you might already know: Boards like this can often have a lot of internal stress or tension, which can release as the board is sawn. This is potentially dangerous, as a kerf can close behind a saw blade, a growing bend in a formerly straight edge can push the board away from the saw fence, etc. I think you'd be safest if you use a bandsaw to cut this board--at least for the first few cuts, until you see how it's going to behave.

[Steve Benford]

Thanks again for all the responses. As I said in my original post this is already a body. Its not a board I can make other things out of. Nor do I want to. It still has a value to me as a test body or whatever. Its just not "customer grade". Id rather try and fix it than use it as "firewood" and learn nothing.

STEVE