Turning Burls

Re: Turning Burls

John K Jordan

I know of no best way to mount a burl. Each is unique and each is a guess. Sometimes I guess right and sometimes wrong.

Some people who like to turn things with a bunch of voids just flatten some part of the burl, mount it on a face plate or something, and start turning and see what they get. I have a friend who loves wood like that - he will turn the outside then wrap it with strapping tape to hold it together while turning the inside. I prefer turning good, solid wood so I try to work around the defects.

I am wary of large bark inclusions since they are very weak and chunk can fly apart in a heartbeat.

Without out x-ray vision, sometimes it's just examine, guess, cut, repeat. If I don't have an overwhelming goal of making the largest blank possible, I usually just saw the burl in half on some axis. If I see obvious defects on the newly exposed surface I might probe or cut and try to determine the extent of the defects to help me determine the next cut.

Sometimes I'll make a few cuts and a bowl-sized blank will reveal itself, or maybe some lidded box sized blanks. Sometimes a potentially great burl will end up being small pieces for ornaments or small boxes, spheres, etc. I'm happy with this since my large bowl drive is low.

JKJ

What John said...

Ralph Lindberg

I'd set for either the max yield or max chance of a successful project.

Re: Turning Burls

Jake niedling

I like turning bowls with a natural edge, if possible. Otherwise, I do what John K. Jordan said. In fact, I usually go up to John's place to cut my burls and share some of it with him.

Re: Turning Burls

Jeff Smith

John got it right - start cutting and see what the wood is going to give you. Strategy for root burl can be different from those growing from the trunk or branches - and the amount of rock and bark inclusions is usually greater. With many burls some of the best figure is near the surface, where the pins are forming, natural edge pieces can be stunning.

While I always like to work to a plan, it all can change after the first cut.

I generally plan to core the larger chunks to get the most yield from the burl, and, Scottish soul that my father raised, I save nearly every off cut. There’s always something it can be used for.

Root burls

John K Jordan

Anyone want a manzanita root burl? Come visit. I bought some years ago and turned a couple, voids, rocks and all. I'll probably never get around to turning the rest of them.

Maybe I'll bring them to the Knoxville club wood auction next year.

JKJ

Re: Root burls

bill tucker

Wellll, since you offered, it just so happens that I will be in the Knoxville (Arrowmont) area at the end of this month. If you plan on being around on the 28th or 29th and would tolerate a visit, let me know.

bill

Re: Turning Burls

George Balock

Doug,

It hasn’t been mentioned yet, but generally speaking, if you look at the points on the outside of the burl, it will show you where the “eyes” will appear. This is especially true of the Maple Burl if it is missing the bark. Depending on the burl, the eyes will not go very deep.

George

Re: Turning Burls

Don Orr

You have received excellent advice so far and I will only add that after you have worked with and cut up a few burls, if you have paid attention, you can sometimes work out a reasonable cutting plan to give a decent yield of solid (or mostly solid) blanks and get nice figure patterns in the finished piece.

I don't have X-Ray vision but I am an X-Ray tech and I have CAT scanned a burl many years ago. The detail of the internal structures was excellent. You can see bark, voids, grain patterns. I also did an MRI on a fresh-cut apple log (has to have a lot of water) and the detail was phenomenal. Growth rings, branches, everything as if you cut it open with a saw-actually better because the cuts are cleaner. The images are not in digital format so I have no good way to post them. I think I took some digital photos of the films and posted them but don't remember where.

Re: Turning Burls

Don Orr

OK-I found my burl pics over on SMC. from 2006 I think.

Lousy photos-sorry. Used an old digital camera with the films hanging on a light box.

Re: Turning Burls

John K Jordan

>>>OK-I found my burl pics over on SMC. from 2006 I think.



That's cheating!

Re: Root burls

John K Jordan

>>>Wellll, since you offered, it just so happens that I will be in the Knoxville (Arrowmont) area at the end of this month. If you plan on being around on the 28th or 29th and would tolerate a visit, let me know.

Bill,

Excellent! I love visitors. I plan to be here both of those dates. The time shouldn't matter either day except for Sunday morning - if you would, send me an email when you know your approximate windows of opportunity for a visit. If you want to look it up I'm just a couple of miles north of Clinton towards Rocky Top (Lake City).

Where are you driving from?

I put your name on a couple of the burls. Since you are taking the time for a visit maybe I can twist your arm and get you to take some other wood too, like an ambrosia maple blank or a piece of dogwood.

Also, let me know the kind of things do you like to turn. Most of my wood is dry or drying and since I like to turn smallish things a lot of my stock is small, zillions of spindle blanks. I do have a few logs waiting at the sawmill if you like green wood - I have chainsaws and I'm not afraid to use them. If you can use (and carry) a slab or two I'll probably be sawing some more ERC and some white oak and hickory before then, maybe a sassafras log. I like to cut a few 8/4 or 10/4 slabs if a log looks good inside.

JKJ

Re: Turning Burls

mikeee12345

Considering the amount of wood it looks to be a boy, congratulations.

Re: Turning Burls