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What to do with burl until I turn it?

Joined
Jul 5, 2016
Messages
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Location
San Antonio, TX
I got my hands on large live oak burl. It is about 28x18 and about 10-12” in height. I have no clue what to do with it yet, it is big so will probably end up being smaller pieces. My question is do I remove the bark and seal it all, or do I keep the bark for now and seal the bottom?
 
Put it in corner.....sort of visualize different shapes in the burl......you will know when u are ready.....burl just leave it as is....interlocking grain.....i would leave bark on also....check for insects
 
As Charlie said, leave the bark on since that is how the burl has been ever since it first appeared on the tree. I would however recommend coating the other side with a generous amount of Anchorseal. I don't have much experience with live oak, but most types of oak just love to crack as it dries.
 
Thanks guys, left the bark on and applied anchorseal to the bottom sid.

I usually avoid live oak but it was a large burl and had to have it. It has odd cut on the underside where the tree was, I will have to cut it into smaller pieces for hollow forms. Pictures are pre-sealing.

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Note it is a large mass of wood and even with sealing it will dry and probably crack/. The best coarse of action is to rough turn it and use ankorseal on the end grain which is probably the whole piece. Several years ago I got a white oak burl and the pieces that I didn't get rough turned before spring ended up with cracks. Some of the larger bowls still cracked so they were saved by filling with powered stone. The photo shows the early stages of cutting it so you can see that many of the individual pieces are larger than your burl.IMG_1417.JPG 7008Platter.JPG
 
If you have regular humidity leave as it is as suggested but if you have times of low to very low humidity it will open up some. In this case, seal the cut area and leave the bark on and store it in the most even temperature part of the shop.
 
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