green burl turning

[hughie]

Some time ago I came across a well known turner in the US that turns all his burl work green. His name escapes me, on a web site I cant remember grrrh!

He manages to turn and season it in a fairly short period of time and claims virtually no hassles with his method .

Seeing I have several green...very green burls on hand, I thought I might have a go at it.


Darned if I can find his site again, must be asking Google all the wrong questions

I wonder if anybody can put a name or web site to my problem, thanks

 

[Keith Krebs]

You might be thinking of Dale Larsen from Oregon. He does a lot of Madrone burl that is totally unstable. He has a process where he rough turns and thens boils the wood that calms it down.

 

[MichaelMouse]

No matter how well-known they are, the wood will not bow to the turner, the turner must accommodate to the wood.

Burls are random-grained, in the main, and they can't generally figure out a direction to warp any more than you can figure out which direction they will. The non-twisted grain portions behave according to the rules documented in Hoadley and others. Ignore them at your own risk.

Boiling has its upside, in that there will be some stress relief in the piece as the lignin flows. There will also be a redistribution of extractives which may not be pleasing, and an overall loss in color to the boiling medium. Boiling from within with a microwave does both the stress relief and the drying, but wants you to control the rate of surface loss with no fan (bad for the microwave) or a bag.

Some soak their wood in ethanol, some in heavy alcohols, but if one method works, the other can't. Actually doesn't. Other bulking methods include water-soluble acrylics at great price, but no surface sliminess.

If you push drying, choose cheaper wood to do it with than burls. They're not worth any risk, and they're worth waiting for.

 

[hockenbery]

I've turned quite a few green hollow forms from burls.
I don't do anything special for the burls just normal green wood techniques:
even walls, smooth curves, control the drying for the first few days.

I usually sand my green turned hollow forms off the lathe after they have dried.
This is bit more tedious with burl as it generally ripples as it dries because of the variation in density.
I sometimes sand the wet wood to have the finished ripple on the surface.
sort to a leather texture.

Ive turned a few small pieces from madrone burl thin and let it warp into terrific shapes. These i just did a shear scrape for a finished surface and light sanding with 320 to remove any fuzz. This is not a glass smooth surface but a pleasing one to hold.

Have fun!
Al

 

[John Jordan]

Depends on the kind of burls. Red/silver maple burls are quite stable. I've turned hundreds of with those. Redwood is stable. Claro walnut and madrone are very unstable. Others are predictably unstable. Turn a small piece a see what it does-that's easy enough and will tell you what you need to know.

John

 

[davepeck]

Another person you may be thinking of is Christian Buchard.
www.burchardstudio.com

 

[hockenbery]

Madrone does move a lot.

these pieces range 5-7" diameter and the have folded and crinkled.

maybe its Forrest Gump wood. Like a box of choclate you never know what you are going to get.

it is sort of fun to watch it change shape as it dries.

Al

 

[hughie]

Thanks for all your replies,plenty of good info.

As I am down under its full range of Australian burls. From my experience to date the Eucalyptus burls are some of the most unpredictable, prone to open up like a pine cone.

Seeing its winter here, this is the best time to gather burls before the srping sap rises. I used to get some burls from Tasmania but as its a very wet climate it was like turning in a centrifugal rain storm 😀 too much water, too much movement.

 

[John Jordan]

Thanks for all your replies,plenty of good info.

As I am down under its full range of Australian burls. From my experience to date the Eucalyptus burls are some of the most unpredictable, prone to open up like a pine cone.

Seeing its winter here, this is the best time to gather burls before the srping sap rises. I used to get some burls from Tasmania but as its a very wet climate it was like turning in a centrifugal rain storm 😀 too much water, too much movement.

Wet does not necessarily=unstable. "Sap rising" is really just a phrase. The amount of sap in the tree is essentially the same year round. It simply stops circulating while the tree is dormant.

Most Eucalyptus is very volatile. Good luck with it. 😀 When I demo in Australia, I always get camphor, or jacaranda. I know what's gonna happen with them.

John

 

[hughie]

[

When I demo in Australia, I always get camphor, or jacaranda. I know what's gonna happen with them.

John,

Good choice in most states here Camphor is a noxious weed but you can get some out standing blanks from very old trees. I find Jacaranda a little harder to find as most folk don't cut them down due aesthetic reasons.I have to wait for the severe summer storms to knock a few over.

 

[John Jordan]

[



John,

Good choice in most states here Camphor is a noxious weed but you can get some out standing blanks from very old trees. I find Jacaranda a little harder to find as most folk don't cut them down due aesthetic reasons.I have to wait for the severe summer storms to knock a few over.

I know that there's some effort to get rid of the camphor laurel trees, but they sure are beautiful trees when they get large.🙂

Are you the same hughie that's been posting on MetalMeet? If so, it's a small world.

John

 

[robo hippy]

I turn some green burl, and all of my bowls are green turned. Some woods are predictable, others are not. With burl, green turned, or reaction (figured) wood, you will get movement with the figure. For me, this extra texturing is an added benefit for my warped bowls. The down side to it is that if you don't sand it wet, you will end up sanding out all of the texture to get it any where near smooth. With burl, using a shear cut to finish with, you can get a very nice surface, that needs little or no sanding. Burl has no linear grain like normal wood, so there is almost no tear out. I do prefer to wrap the outside of the form with news paper, and secure it to the rim with some of the stretch plastic film that you use on boxes to keep them on a pallet. You want some of the film to overlap the rim. Never tried it on natural edge pieces with dramatic edges or bark. Leave the inside open. This does limit movement a tiny bit, but does a much better job of drying than the paper bag.

robo hippy

 

[hughie]

Are you the same hughie that's been posting on MetalMeet? If so, it's a small world.

John, nah not the same one, cheers