Just got my old Oliver tweeked and running properly, and was thinking about what to turn, and I remembered an old burl I got in vermont, oh 35 years ago or so, that’s been sitting in my basement. I think it might be dry by now. I had no idea what wood it was, the tree was standing dead and I couldn’t identify the bark, so I waxed the ends, tossed it in a box, and forgot about it. I ran it accross a jointer this morning, and it looks like cherry to me. What I want to know, from experienced burl turners, are there any obvious pitfalls in turning this hunk that you could give me fair warning about ? pictures below, thanks for your opinions.
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I haven't turned any bowl burls, but be careful as they are not as strong as run-of-the-mill bowl blanks. I have seen some turners using duct tape as insurance in case the bowl blows up. Make sure you wear a face sheild and beware of catches! Best of luck... I am envious. In don't see any reason why it shouldn't be dry.
Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
That was a little "dry" humor. Thanks for the advice. Iv'e got the face shield standing by.
hey thumb,
that looks like cherry to me. ive turned a number of gnarly old burls, flying chunks of bark and loose rotten pieces are what i watch out for. your burl looks very sound. you're going to get a nice turning out of that. go slow, get it centered and have fun.
eef
Thanks for the warning, I gave it a spin this morning and knocked off most of the loose junk. Now I know why some guys wear an apron ! I spent a while with an airchuck getting the bark out of my shirt and hair. Never had so much stuff flying around while turning before. Now I'm trying to decide whether to turn it down to clean burl or to leave bark inclusions. The end result will be a lot smaller if I lose all the bark. Do turners who leave large voids in pieces have a stabilizing trick, or just very sharp tools and a steady hand ?
thumb,
yes, the bark does fly. very often hidden dirt, rocks and dead things will also take to the air. the last one i turned started out at about ten inches in diameter and the finished little vase was complete at three inches in diameter. sometimes the whole burl simply falls apart. when i want to include large or small voids (holes) in the piece i do make sure that my chisels are sharp. but then, sharp is always a good thing. the area that i live in has an abundance of astounding burls. one can hike the dry riverbeds around here and find perfect,dry burls of about four or five species. so far this wealth has not been exploited and few are aware this treasure-trove exists.
eef
Sounds like a great place to go for a hike. At least I don't have to worry about dirt and rocks, since I harvested it myself from a standing dead tree about 5 feet off the ground. Right now I've got it roughed into an elongated half sphere, with about 1/3 of the bark gone and some pretty large voids. I'm thinking the best strategy is just to slowly get into it, and see what it starts to look like. If it doesn't blow up or look like crap, I'll post it at some point. Thanks for the encouragement.
"Sounds like a great place to go for a hike." Hah! Only if your lungs can handle the smog. I have relatives down there, maybe I can talk them into hiking for me....forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
LA definitely has some reputation going against it. I used to live in northern Cal, Berkeley to be exact, and the few times I visited LA my friends swore there were mountains right outside the city. Never saw them. Let's not badmouth Eef's hometown, at least they have burls.
I found an oak tree in my woods, about 20"wide, and the whole lower bole of the tree was a massive burl, at least twice as wide as the tree. I flagged its location in my mind, and went on to other things. A couple of years later I went back to check it out and the tree had died and turned to standing mulch. I could have cried ! For some reason the trees in my area don't produce burl very often, a great opportunity lost !
I was born in S. California, went back there as a 12-year-old and graduated from Orange High. I'm sure that between my mother's smoking and the smog, my lungs are not pure as the driven snow. My occasional visits to the Palm Desert area to visit sis and bro remind me why I never went back!
Sad about missing your burl opportunity! There's a comparatively small one growing on a cherry tree in our yard. Tree was topped by some idiot before hubby bought the place. When I feel my turning skills justify it, I'm gonna cut that puppy down and have at it!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Thumb, can't help with your turning question, but your "dry" humor is kil-n me. ;-)
Planks alot !
That is so small, it is going to be hard to do much with it. Around here, most bumps on cherry are actually canker rather than burls, and not really all that exciting.
You should have gone at it while it was green. cherry is really a great fun wood to turn green.
Since you have waited for it to dry to start, it will likely have a few internal checks, which could have been avoided if you had turned green, then allowed it to deform.
You are on the right path now though. Just go at it, and see what it presents, and slowly sneak up on the final form which works with the properties presented.
I would try to keep the sapwood to a minimum, which will likely mean no bark, and pretty small, so I would just think of this as an exercise. But you can still have fun, and learn something to boot.
I found the darn thing, probably already dry, thirty five years ago or so, before I knew anything at all about woodworking, let alone had access to a lathe, I just thought it was too interesting to leave in the woods or use for firewood. I understand that people are turning huge things on huge lathes, but I wouldn't call this small. I had to carefully cut it down to mount it inboard on my 12" Oliver. Of course, now that I've turned it down to slightly more wood than bark, it's a bit smaller. You are correct, the inside is pretty checked, and there's a lot of barky voids, but I have some unorthadox ideas about stabilizing it. We'll see if I can keep from blowing it up and get something nice out of it
Because of the shape of this burl, I've mounted it what I would normally consider "backwards". What I suspected would be the bottom had no surface to mount to, so I mounted the rim side to a block and turned down the outside to see what was under all that bark. After the above-mentioned shower of bark, some really pretty wood started to appear, but it was full of voids and checks. After evaluating the mass and turning to a shape that seemed to maximize the piece, to stabilize the blank I buttered the whole outside with West Epoxy, then turned it down to clean wood, and tuned up the shape to clean curves, pretty close to final shape on the bottom section. I split the burl off the turning block, and turned a seat in the block to match the foot, and re-glued the burl to the block the other way around. Tomorrow I'll turn the rim to finish shape, epoxy the rim area if it needs it, then start opening up the inside. It's unbelievable how hard this wood is ! I've done most of the finish turning with just a skew, and the wood looks almost polished. I may not have to touch it with sandpaper.
When I flipped the piece around, it came out almost perfectly centered, just needed a few light touches to true-up. I turned the rim to rough shape, buttered it with West Epoxy again to stabilize the checks and voids, then turned it true. I put on a first layer of wipe-on varnish, and tomorrow I'm going to open it up. I put the varnish on just in case I have to epoxy the inside, so it won't mess up the outside through the voids. Hope it doesn't blow up !
thumb,
that is one good looking burl. and, judging from your workmanship, not you first day on the beach either.
eef
Waiting patiently and hoping for the best. I check in daily to see a gorgeous piece or a pile of burl bits. Either way let us know.
Cri7s,
If thats your real name ! It came out great, I'll put up some pictures in the next day or so. Sorry to leave you hanging, I've been too busy .
Good news and bad news. First the bad: When I dipped into the opening to start removing the insides, my chisel slipped into a large wormy void, and blew the burl right off the mount. It arced through the air, and I silently said "goodbye" to it. The good news: the turning hit the foor with a loud "thunk !" like the sound a bowling ball makes when it hits the lane. It rolled accross the shop and stopped up against the table saw. Lo and behold, it only had light superficial damage, so I remounted it, trued it back up, and proceeded to hollow it out. I was concerned that the walls might blow out, so I tightly wrapped the outside with commercial stretch-wrap. I don't know if it actually helped, but it didn't hurt. The end result, I only turned the walls down to about 3/8" 'cause I didn't trust the crumbly burl any thinner. Also, the final depth was a little shallower than I intended, when I ran out of toolrest and chisel cantelever and then a little hairy overextension. But, all in all, a fun challenge and a beautiful centerpiece for the Thanksgiving table.
Edited 11/4/2008 4:53 pm ET by thumbnailed
Came out great! I always love to see what a gnarled knot of wood turns into in the hands of a pro. Good stuff.
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