score this weekend!

[J.Leclair]

Hey guys. haven't posted in awhile, Ive been super busy getting a bunch of knives made up for a show I'm doing at the end of september.

My wife's Aunt and Uncle are selling off their farm and moving to Hawaii, so I got roped into helping set up and move larger items. in return I was told I could pick anything I wanted before the sale. Got a whole milk crate full of assorted C clamps, a bunch of plate, square tube, and other misc. scrap steel. and the real prize. A huge maple burl!! This tree had been growing along the lane leading to the farm house and was cut down after it died about 7 years ago, my wifes uncle put it away planning to make some caffee tables or clocks from it. He never got around to it so 2 years ago he dragged it out of the shed it had been in and sstuck it in a brush pile to be burned. here's some pix of the burl and a couple shots of some of the slab faces.

here it is as we first saw it

after dragging it out with the tractor

hard to tell from the rough chainsaw cuts but there's deffinately some killer figure in there and alot of red spalting.

cant wait to start cutting this stuff into blocks!

 

[A.W.Stovall]

Nice!!

 

[HHH Knives]

Awesome!

 

[Diamond G Knives]

OH Boy!!!!
No telling what untold treasures are lurking in that burl!!

God Bless
Mike

 

[J.Leclair]

I need to find a moisture meter but from what I can tell so far it seems good and dry. I also need to find a bigger saw, my benchtop bandsaw is too small to handle the slabs.
I took the palm sander to one of the more likely looking pieces and sanded it up to 60 grit, some eye poping stuff in there. gonna take some planning to get the most of it tho.

 

[rhinoknives]

Rent a large saw and try to get 1 1/4" slices.
Somewhere on this site Mark, From It's a Burl! Has a tutorial on how he breaks down a large burl like that one. Worth watching!

Nice looking wood!

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com/

 

[J.Leclair]

I have, In fact been informed on another forum that this is more likely box elder not maple.

here's a little teaser of some of my small test pieces.

 

[GrizzlyKnives]

Ho-Lee-Chit!!!

WOWEE what a score!!!!

I think you're right, it does look like box elder. My friend, you have found a nice little gold mine there!

 

[Patrick]

Check locally for saw mills. They could slab that up for you in a hurry and then you just have to piece it out. Leave them a little bigger than what you plan to use, so when they fully dry and it moves a little, you will have enough to work with. Great score!

 

[Brad Lilly]

Someone with a portable sawmill could rip that up in 5 min, I have one but Nova Scotia is a long hall from Edmonton. Watch out for metal sometimes burls have grown over metal (spikes, fence, chain, etc). Nice score!!

 

[J.Leclair]

we broke the burl down into about 8" - 10" wide slices with the chain saw. The centre of the burl was hollow so it made for easy cutting. I should have cut the slabs thinner more like 4" - 5"

 

[JDW]

That is some nice burl, big too. You can get a moisture meter from Harbor Freight, less than $20.00. I have a small burl from a black jack tree, and it had been in my shop for 2 years, when cut into blocks it still has 12% moisture in it. I thought it was very dry till I checked it.

Dale

 

[Knifemaker.ca]

Jason, box elder is called Manitoba Maple in Canada. You and your informats are both right. The red fungus is specific to the species and you have an outstanding example. The trick is to find a burl with rich red "spalt" that has not been trashed by the fungus and yours looks good. Cut it to much oversize blocks and send them to WSSI for stabilizing. You have something VERY special.

Rob!

 

[bubba-san]

That is a whopper...... with double cheese ......

 

[Meridian Blades]

Jason, box elder is called Manitoba Maple in Canada. You and your informats are both right. The red fungus is specific to the species and you have an outstanding example. The trick is to find a burl with rich red "spalt" that has not been trashed by the fungus and yours looks good. Cut it to much oversize blocks and send them to WSSI for stabilizing. You have something VERY special.

Rob!

Box elder is in the maple family.........yes. I like the red, but I will take the pure white stuff 10 times over..... Jason send me all the pure white stuff, and I will send it in to get it dyed red and black..........WAIT does that make any sense...........HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Larry