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Burl Advice Needed

Tom Albrecht

Tom Albrecht

Joined
Feb 8, 2014
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Location
Evanston, IL USA
For the last thirty years I have primarily been a spindle turner doing architectural reproductions including balusters, newel posts, finials, and column bases as a side job. I have successfully turned lots of bowls from logs once in a while, but now I'm getting out of the architectural stuff to get back into the bowls, vessels, and ornamental stuff. I bought myself a new and larger lathe as my retirement gift to myself for just this purpose. I want to start messing around with burls now, as I have a good collection of them ranging in size from 12" up to about 24" or more. My question is about how & where to start. Do you just mount up a whole burl and start making big bowl with a lot of waste, or do you cut them up into smaller chunks for smaller bowls? I have been hording these things for years and I'm almost intimidated at the prospect of wasting a bunch of good stock.
 
I sure can't give you any advice on what size to turn. You'll have to decide if you want natural edge bowls and vessels, or smooth edges. I'd suggest looking at images on Google to help you decide on a form. On most of my bowls, I will have one flat face, and will bandsaw it round before going to the lathe. If really nice burls, coring makes a lot of sense.
 
Richard Coers said:
I sure can't give you any advice on what size to turn. You'll have to decide if you want natural edge bowls and vessels, or smooth edges. I'd suggest looking at images on Google to help you decide on a form. On most of my bowls, I will have one flat face, and will bandsaw it round before going to the lathe. If really nice burls, coring makes a lot of sense.
Click to expand...

Thanks Richard. Do you have any Burl Bowl photos you could post here?
 
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