Help with Maple Burls-revisited

Re: Help with Maple Burls-revisited

Mike Schwing from Md.

>George, this past weekend I roughed out three black cherry burls that were prepped just as Wally suggested, about 8 months ago. They were in fine shape. In fact, I missed/forgot to anchorseal one of them and it was cracked at the ends quite a ways in. The anchorsealed burls were perfect.

Re: Help with Maple Burls-revisited

Mark Kauder, Phenix City, AL

>George,

I am no expert, however, remember that Anchorseal will not stop the drying of wood, it just slows it a great deal. If you have the time, as you do in this example, Anchorsealing the whole piece is an excellent way to dry the wood in a very controlled way. If I have the time, I like to completely coat roughed bowls with Anchorseal and let them dry for a year of so. The chances of cracking are greatly reduced.

If you needed to virtually stop the drying process, you could cover the wood with a thick coat of parafin wax. I have bought some Austrailian Burls Hot, Dry Arizona, that were encased in Wax, and when turned were about as wet as the day they were cut.

Your mileage may vary.

Mark

Re: Help with Maple Burls-revisited

Wally Dickerman at Green Valley, Az.

>I've been turning burl wood for many years. Mostly big leaf maple, myrtlewood and Pacific madrone. I almost never have cracking problems if I coat the raw, cut wood with anchorseal. The madrone is very unstable, so it'll do a lot of moving, but not cracking. If I cut it up into blanks then I coat all surfaces. I have a burl source in Oregon who has hundreds of dry burl caps, some drying for years. They have no protection, and are seldom cracked.

Wally

Re: Help with Maple Burls-revisited

George Van

>Thanks Mike, Mark, and Wally, your information gives me a lot of piece of mind. I walked by the burls on my way in to lunch and it is nice to look at them and not worry.

I have a demo with Trent Bosh this Saturday and classes Sunday and Monday, he will be at our chapter in Duluth. I am hopeful after a class my skills will improve. Then maybe I will carve into one of the ugly burls!

Thanks again, George

Re: Help with Maple Burls-revisited

Brad Vietje

>George,

It's well worth the effort to protect them from wind, too. Wind and air circulation can dry wood just as fast as heat or sun.

Safe spinning,

Brad Vietje

Thetford, VT

A little heads up...

Bob Hackett

>Remember that the moisture you are sealing in will also cause the burls to spalt or rot.I had a very nice birch root burl turn too soft to be usable before I got to it.

Mainely,Bob

Re: A little heads up...

George Van

>A good concern Bob. Did you have it sealed all around or just the exposed wood? How long did it take to rot? Maybe this is more a problem with our birches where the bark is waterproof. I had a logger drop off a birch burl yesterday that is a year old that he left on his deck, it has checks across the face surface created where he cut it off the log at the landing. I wish this was one that had been sealed, I will know better this weekend.

George

Re: A little heads up...

Bob Hackett

>I had Anchorsealed the cut surfaces and left the bark on.It went bad in less than a year.

I`ve found that soft maple logs will also rot quickly if you seal the ends.So much for those really nice curly maple logs I dragged home and stacked other logs on.:^(

We don`t have termites up here but the carpenter ants and borers make quick work of burls and logs too.

Mainely,Bob

BTW,all my wood is stored in the shade up off the ground,shielded from rain/sun by old plywood or tarps.This makes a wonderful home for all sorts of livestock to include ground hornets as I recently discovered,much to my dismay.

Re: A little heads up...

George Van

>Thanks for the warning. We don�t have termites up here either but I hear ya on the carpenter ants and borers. I will watch things closely. Going to harvest a couple of cherry and yellow birch this morning before the snow sets in and they're difficult to get to.

George