How to attack this.......

[John Murray]

Newby turner and newby wood harvester here. Picked up a bunch of burls today from a “free wood” CL listing. It is very dry and the owner did not know what kind of wood it is. Looking for suggestions on the best way to start cutting it up. Especially pics 3 and 4. Thanks

 

[Dean Center]

My apologies if I have misunderstood your level of experience.

In all honesty, my best suggestion is to store those carefully somewhere, while you make a bazillion of whatever you like. When you feel confident in your turning ability, those burls will be waiting to be turned into magnificent pieces. (and you won't need our advice on what to do with them) Burls are not harder to turn than plain wood, it's that plain wood will teach you just fine, and burls can make special, live edge pieces that you might not be able to make happen at this point.

 

[Mike Johnson]

John,

Looks like you picked up on a good deal with your burls, no two burls are alike and many of them have voids inside that you can not see. If a burl looks like it has voids you might consider cutting it into smaller pieces eliminating the voids. Smaller pieces of burl can be encapsulated in epoxy and turn colored spheres with burl wood contained within the sphere. If you have a solid burl they can make some spectacular bowls and vases, however you will waste a lot of good burl wood when roughing the piece out. If you know someone that has a coring system they might be able to get 2 or 3 bowl blanks from one large burl if it is solid. Smaller pieces of burl can be used to make small items like shaving brush handles, pens, spinning tops, finials, etc. Some people will also cut burl into veneer pieces if you have a need, if you cut a burl into bigger billets you can always cut what you need later from the bigger piece.

 

[Bill Boehme]

It appears that the tree has been dead and out in the weather for quite a while judging by the splits and some indication of decay. Nevertheless, I think that there is still a lot of promise in the wood. I think that you're the only one who will be able to decide what to do with it. If I had a nice hunk of burl I probably would study it for a long time ... perhaps even years until I felt some sort of inspiration. A photograph might draw my admiration, but it would require much more scrutiny to decide how I wanted to use a nice burl ... and I wouldn't feel pressed for time. Since I don't know where you are in your woodturning journey my best advice is to postpone using the wood until you know what you want to make. If it helps, there is no right or wrong decision ... it's just a decision. Meanwhile study as many burl turnings as you can find. Here is a piece turned from a live oak burl that I literally kicked around in my shop for about ten years before I came up with this southwestern olla idea.

 

[John Murray]

All sage advice gentlemen and I appreciate your suggestions, I have them off the ground and covered with a tarp so maybe that is the best place for them for now. Here is a fresh chainsaw cut with some DNA on it. Any guesses what kind of wood it is? I live in SoCal. Thanks

 

[Tom Albrecht]

My apologies if I have misunderstood your level of experience.

In all honesty, my best suggestion is to store those carefully somewhere, while you make a bazillion of whatever you like. When you feel confident in your turning ability, those burls will be waiting to be turned into magnificent pieces. (and you won't need our advice on what to do with them) Burls are not harder to turn than plain wood, it's that plain wood will teach you just fine, and burls can make special, live edge pieces that you might not be able to make happen at this point.

This is good advice, and I still have a shed full of burls waiting for inspiration. I have found myself with the trepidation about how to start, and where to start. Sometimes I just start cutting a blank out of a log and see what happens because for me, the burls are so much harder to read with all the swirly mixed up grain.
I do have to disagree on the difficulty of turning burls, I have found that the real hardwood burls can keep me returning to the grinder a lot in order to get a good finish.

 

[robo hippy]

Oak.... Terrible nasty stuff, you don't want it. Send it all to me and I will 'dispose' of it for you........ Nice score! Might be pretty hard, and turn slow, taking your time.

robo hippy

 

[John Murray]

LOL... thanks Robo, it seems a lot of folks think this is from the genus......mineminemine!!! I was leaning towards oak as well but have had some opinions from another site that thought it might be salt cedar I.e. tamarisk. Here are some better end grain pics.

 

[Bill Boehme]

You can clearly see the medullary rays that say it is oak. I agree with the hippie that it can be extremely hard, but at the same time I see evidence of decay. Storing outdoors covered with a tarp even if off the ground is not a good idea at least it wouldn't be where I live ... I would have to store it indoors.

 

[John Murray]

Thanks Bill, I am somewhat space challenged to store these in the garage. The person I picked them up from had also kept them outside “for years”. If nothing else I might be able to do some stabilization and casting sometime in the future.. but regardless I look forward to the challenge. I do appreciate your thoughts and experience.

As A sidenote… I grew up in Mesquite. I had never heard of Dalworthington Gardens until I looked it up tonight. After reading a little bit about your town… It has a very interesting history. My dad now lives in Cedar Hill.