Question about cutting Burl ?

CRAIG1952

CRAIG1952

Well-Known Member
I was very lucky to find a lot of Burl on trees that had been cut down on a Ranch, across the street from my Church:biggrin:I know the owner and he said take what you want:biggrin:
Well my question once I cut it from the tree. what is the right way to slice it up? Today I brought home a coupe of piece's that I could pick up. Did the slice and dice on the burl, bbut wasn't happy with the results! I did fill up a five gallon bucket with some good pieces only a few would be suitable for knife handles. I figure I'll make some burl jewelry from the rest !
Another question has any one ever glued pieces of Burl together to make a mosaic(Think correct spelling) handle ? This way I wont waste any:biggrin:
 
Hi Craig, Sound like you stumbled into some good fortune. :)

As far as some burl not looking as good as you would hope. That is just the nature of the beast, when starting out cutting burls, as you cut more and more you will learn to read the burls. and can then sorta know what to expect from a burl by what it looks like.. But only experience can give you that.. Have fun and enjoy working with the woods learning as you go... Different species will give different burly figures.. Sometimes you may be pleasantly surprised when you cut into a burl, other times.. it can be just OK and nothing worth jumping up and down and running in the house to show your wife, Which BTW she will be less then amused by the burl most of the time!! lolol :)

Another thing is, most woods will not look very good right off the saw. and need to be sanded and or wet down a little to show whats really there!!

Heres a link that may be helpful from Mark. Hes a good guy and may chime in here to help. http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php...burl-for-handle-blocks&highlight=cutting+burl


God Bless and Have fun..
 
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...looks like Randy beat me to the punch. ...story of my life.

...guess I dont get those burl chunks.

Enjoy your new found treasure!

Eric
 
since nobody has mentioned yet, are these burls dry? if not they would be best left uncut for a few years or risk warping, cracking and ending up with a bunch of useless wood.
 
J.Leclair said:
since nobody has mentioned yet, are these burls dry? if not they would be best left uncut for a few years or risk warping, cracking and ending up with a bunch of useless wood.
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They were dry I believe, I was able to kick the first piece off the stump. I thought I would take a sample to see what they cut like. I filled up my respirator filter the bark was so dry, but I was going to leave them sit for quite awhile.
 
Thanks for the link ! I guess I'll need a band saw:biggrin: I am sure the wife will want to hear that:biggrin: Today I was using my table saw to cut the burl into blocks seem to work okay ! The burl I got was a lot smaller than the one in the link, but I seen a couple that were about that size! Some of the wood is Olive and the other I think is spruce of some type. Some of the logs have a bright red heart. Wonder what that would look like as a handle?
 
CRAIG1952 said:
..... Some of the wood is Olive and the other I think is spruce of some type. Some of the logs have a bright red heart. Wonder what that would look like as a handle?
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Given your location, maybe the possibility that some of it could be redwood?
If it is, it's apt to be "dry and brittle", but will still make good-lookin' pieces.
Stabilize or use a durable pore-filling finish for best durability. Stabilizing is best, but brushing on some CA glue works well, or clear epoxy for even more durability.
 
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