I have been using the DNA technique for drying my rough turned bowls with success. Now, I have acquired a couple of huge cherry burls which are wet. Can I rough turn then dry these burls (or any other type) in the same way I would any other bowl? My second question is, I don't know exactly how to orient the blank on the lathe for turning. Any suggestions/recommendations would be very much appreciated. Thanks.
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Cherry burls: drying and turning
- Thread starter gary7
- Start date
Hey Gary,
Ya gotta be super careful with those cherry burls. They're highly toxic and, under the wrong conditions, can be quite explosive, destroying your house and much of your neighborhood. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU ATTEMPT TO TURN THEM OR DISPOSE OF THEM YOURSELF!!! You need to bring in a specialist to handle such dangerous material.
As folks will tell you, I'm a Specialized Cherry And Miscellenious Materials Expert Disposer (S.C.A.M.M.E.D) and would be happy to help you safely deal with your dangerous cherry burls. I'd even be willing to have them shipped to me and disposed of with no additional charge to you. This is a service I offer to AAW forum members only so best take advantage of it quickly, before YOUR WHOLE TOWN SUFFERS THE HORRIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR GROSS NEGLIGANCE!!!!
Sincerely,
Dietrich
P.S.(if the rest of you guys back me up on this, you get a cut)
Ya gotta be super careful with those cherry burls. They're highly toxic and, under the wrong conditions, can be quite explosive, destroying your house and much of your neighborhood. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU ATTEMPT TO TURN THEM OR DISPOSE OF THEM YOURSELF!!! You need to bring in a specialist to handle such dangerous material.
As folks will tell you, I'm a Specialized Cherry And Miscellenious Materials Expert Disposer (S.C.A.M.M.E.D) and would be happy to help you safely deal with your dangerous cherry burls. I'd even be willing to have them shipped to me and disposed of with no additional charge to you. This is a service I offer to AAW forum members only so best take advantage of it quickly, before YOUR WHOLE TOWN SUFFERS THE HORRIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR GROSS NEGLIGANCE!!!!
Sincerely,
Dietrich
P.S.(if the rest of you guys back me up on this, you get a cut)
DMcIvor
AAW Staff
burls
Gary-
Those dangerous cherry burls should succumb to the DNA treatment about as well as straight-grained wood. With all its confused grain, burl is more unpredictable. I don't have any evidence to back it up, but I tend to soak burls a little longer because I have a hunch that the DNA uptake into the wood might be a little slower because of the dense, confused grain.
Orientation on the lathe with burls is usually best determined by which part of the figure you want remaining in your finished piece. Because the grain is so confused, you can be turning uphill and downhill in relation to grain direction at any given time. You can also often get away with cutting from large-to-small diameter with burl because of the lack of uniform grain orientation.
Don
Gary-
Those dangerous cherry burls should succumb to the DNA treatment about as well as straight-grained wood. With all its confused grain, burl is more unpredictable. I don't have any evidence to back it up, but I tend to soak burls a little longer because I have a hunch that the DNA uptake into the wood might be a little slower because of the dense, confused grain.
Orientation on the lathe with burls is usually best determined by which part of the figure you want remaining in your finished piece. Because the grain is so confused, you can be turning uphill and downhill in relation to grain direction at any given time. You can also often get away with cutting from large-to-small diameter with burl because of the lack of uniform grain orientation.
Don
R
Ron Sardo
Guest
I've DNA'd cherry burls without a hitch. Go for it.
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Burls dry the same way all woods dry - loss of water to the air from evaporation. Control the rate of evaporation by controlling the relative humidity to control possible degrade. Problem comes with the inclusions and poorly adhered cracks. Without the predictability of straighter grained areas they can fool you by warping south on the east side and north on the west.
They turn like the dense-random-patterned wood they are until you get to a non-burl inclusion, where you have to pay attention to grain orientation or dig and catch. Keep the tool under firm control on the rest.
They turn like the dense-random-patterned wood they are until you get to a non-burl inclusion, where you have to pay attention to grain orientation or dig and catch. Keep the tool under firm control on the rest.
DNA method?
you know, checking to see if it is related to George Washington cherry tree.
DNA - Denatured Alcohol
But, I think I would have to go with Dietrich on this one... he really is the only qualified guy for disposing of these.
(Can I have an extra nice piece, Dietrich?)
But, I think I would have to go with Dietrich on this one... he really is the only qualified guy for disposing of these.
(Can I have an extra nice piece, Dietrich?)
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Greg Stanford said:
D(e)N(atured) A(lcohol). Shellac solvent. Alleged to speed drying and cut down on distortion. Long on serendipity and short on science or sense. Quick search of the archives of this forum will tell you all about it.
Sensibly, mixtures of lower-boiling point ethanol with water don't speed the loss of water. If they did, we'd never get moonshine from mash. Scientifically, it's Raoult's law. In side-by side comparison of soaked and unsoaked, by sceptics and at least one former believer I am familiar with, there was no difference in dry time.
Fallback position for the believers is that having once been in association with alcohol, wood which loses water shrinks less. News to all who have ever let a wooden bucket dry out after use. This is supposed to happen because wood prefers alcohol (who wouldn't?) to water as a companion. If true, we'd never get bourbon out of the barrel, just colored water. Bud would be weak because of the "beechwood aging," and the cask of amontillado would never make our heads swim. Science here says the hydrogen bond goes to the more polar compound.
It's something you can do.