cherry burl

[cwearing]

Is there any difference in the drying time for a rough turned burl as opposed to "regular" wood?

 

[Odie]

Is there any difference in the drying time for a rough turned burl as opposed to "regular" wood?

I think it's very on line with most other woods. Basically, the thicker the walls are, harder and denser, the longer it will take. I have a piece of cherry burl that was very thick and wet in block form before roughing that is drying right now. Will get more info later, but it has warped very badly and has been at least 6-8 months now.........

ooc

 

[hockenbery]

I would agree with Odie that the drying of burl can lead to different warping than grained wood.
Burls probably dry a little quicker.

I have on occasion sanded to finish wet burl surfaces in hollow forms and small basket shapes.
The burl with large differential in wood density then gets a marvelous ripple feel on the surface when dry.

Have fun

Al

 

[MichaelMouse]

Doesn't seem to be a big difference. Though the wood is denser than straight grain, it has a lot of endgrain exposure as well. If you have a mixed piece, with straight grain for part of the bowl, it will lag behind the burl a bit in my experience.

Your first choice is a tough one. Turn to final thickness or attempt a Turn Dry Turn. I favor the former, though you may get some unusual movement. TDT doesn't stop the unusual movement, it just sometimes relieves itself as ugly honeycomb pits and checks where the burl figure is heavy. If it's moderate, you can get round without pits and splits on a TDT.

Either way, don't push the drying. Good piece to rough out and put into the garage for the time being, rather than expose it to low winter indoor humidity.

 

[Odie]

One thing about it........with wet and wild grained burls, I often leave the wall thickness extra wide. (The usual formula is 1/10th the diameter, or a roughed bowl of 10" in diameter would normally be 1" wall thickness for seasoning.) The extra wall thickness is because it gives me extra room for creativity, as well as extra ability to deal with imperfections that may result from seasoning wildly grained burls. With extra thick walls, it necessarily means the seasoning process will be lengthened, but should be considered a little insurance against the inevitable warping, cracks, and other defects that will need to be dealt with at the final turning.

Here are two Cherry Burl roughed bowls that I have on hand, and are in the process of seasoning. (The other four photos are of a recently completed Cherry Burl bowl.) As you can see, both are warping extensively, and neither one have stabilized their moisture content yet. The one on the right has been seasoning the longest, and should be ready for final turning soon. It has wall thickness a bit larger than one inch. The following are the statistics for that bowl:

Cherry Burl
6 1/2" x 4 1/8"
Original moisture content = 34%

Roughed 5/31/12
weights:
6/1 1080 grams
7/14 960g
8/3 895g
9/1 820g
10/2 775g
11/2 760g
12/1 745g
1/3/13 740g
2/1 740g
3/1 735g

Overall, there is minor cracking, but nothing that seems insurmountable so far. I imagine there will be some filling in with epoxy, but I hope that the cracks might be eliminated entirely upon final turning.......we'll see! 😕

The best piece of advice about these difficult propositions, is to take your time and let Mother Nature be an ally in the overall process.......😀 If you get in a hurry, that will work against you. Best to have a few bowls in the seasoning process at any one time.......that way, you can focus your attentions on those things that are ready for your efforts. :cool2:

ooc