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Knowledge You Can Build On — Est. 1998

Camphor burl - wall thickness? finish?

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Camphor burl - wall thickness? finish?

#1

Camphor burl - wall thickness? finish?

Craig Daymon

>I just bought a nice bowl blank of Camphor Burl 4" thick and a bit better than 5x5 square. I have some small little scrap blocks I picked up prior to this purchase and turned one recently to create a knob. Seems moderately hard, but turns like butter and is VERY oily. (Probably relates to the buttery turning.)

So, the question is, has anyone turned this stuff to create a bowl and, if so, what's a safe wall thickness? The burl seems very solid, so I'm not worried about thickness based on the burl, but more about the wood in general. I'd like to get nice results from this block.

Also, what's a typical finish? With all the natural oil, it polishes up pretty good without anything and it is VERY aromatic. Any downside to going unfinished?

Thanks,

Craig

P.S. Sorry for the long ramble, serious internet character flaw.

Re: Camphor burl - wall thickness? finish?

#2

Re: Camphor burl - wall thickness? finish?

Brad Adams

>Craig,

I turn a lot of camphor burl. There's no problem taking it down to 1/4" inch but be careful sanding. It sands like butter. It's very easy to sand a piece out of round or even sand through a piece if you are not careful. For a finish I use a tung oil poly blend (Liberon Finishing oil). I dry sand starting at whatever grit required, then I wet sand at 180 grit using the finish as a lubricant. This fills in the pores pretty well. Sometimes I'll wet sand again at 220 grit. Then, I usually dry sand up to 600 or 1200. Several more coats of finish and you are done. A word of caution. Camphor is a pretty soft wood. Evey your fingernails can put some pretty deep grooves into it.

Good luck with the piece,

Brad in Benicia


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Re: Camphor burl - wall thickness? finish?

#3

Re: Camphor burl - wall thickness? finish?

Craig Daymon

>Brad,

Thanks for the response. I thought it was harder, but I guess this explains what I have seen. That knob I made turned very easily, but when I sanded it I got more scratches than when turning. I had to get it to 400 and sand VERY lightly to avoid scratches.

I didn't want to keep it thick, so it's nice to know I can take it to 1/4". That should work well for me.

Beautiful piece you made. It makes me very glad I picked up this block. (Also makes me want to get off my wallet and get a digital camera.)

Thanks again,

Craig

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