Cherry Burl - What do I do now?

Patrice Lemée;6768311 said:
I am afraid that they don't include shop courses anymore. Actually I think that we never had those courses at least to the extent that you guys have in the states. I would have loved those. :(
But I'll ask around just the same. There is also a woodworking school not too far so I'll try with them, maybe they don't charge too much.

Thanks for the sugestion.

Patrice
Click to expand...

Ooo, a woodworking school... they will have a bandsaw for sure... might even have a scrap box. Lots of woodworkers toss stuff that would make a knife handle. Some of the teachers are likely to have good wood connections and if they are true teachers, will have a "teach button" somewhere on them... like ask a question (that is pressing the "teach button") and the answers just come out... =] Careful, though... some true teachers only have the on button.

Mike
 
Well I checked the burls. One looks fine but the other still has little white worms eating the wood in there. Luke Sheridan suggested heating it up to 150F for a couple of hours. I finally convinced my wife to let me use the kitchen oven for this.
My questions are:
Will this be enough to kill the little buggers?
Will this dry the wood too fast and go against the whole slow drying thing?

Thanks

Patrice
 
I would not think that it would hurt anything but the bugs if you cooked it at 150 for a couple of hours.
 
I looked it up and the internets seem to think that you only need to go up to 130 to kill the buggies, I would guess that 130 f(55c) for a few hours(a study said 30 minutes at temperature kills 100% of bugs) would do the trick on a burl like that, note that a solar kiln(very easy to build) or your car can easily achieve 130 degrees on a hot summer day or any day if you use a heater.

Patience my friend :)
 
Thanks for researching this for me Luke. Let's not tell the wife so I can try the oven first. ;)

I'll try at 130F for a couple hours tomorrow and let you know how the little buggers like it.

Patrice
 
Mike Krall said:
Ooo, a woodworking school... they will have a bandsaw for sure... might even have a scrap box. Lots of woodworkers toss stuff that would make a knife handle. Some of the teachers are likely to have good wood connections and if they are true teachers, will have a "teach button" somewhere on them... like ask a question (that is pressing the "teach button") and the answers just come out... =] Careful, though... some true teachers only have the on button.

Mike
Click to expand...

Speaking of that, a kid at my school today (13 or 14 yr old) was cutting a block of Arizona Desert ironwood to make a clock out of on our 20" bandsaw. I wanted some... :D It was nice wood.
 
this is just my opinion but i would get a gallon of acetone or 2 if needed soak the wood for one day in the acetone that will dispalce alot of the water i would then take the wood out for a few hours for the acetone to evaporate and then add about 5 oz of acriloid b72 to the acetone and give it a stirr add the wood and leave it for a month. I might be wrong with this but i do bones like that so they will not deteriorate .kellyw
 
Kelly, I will try the oven thing first but I will keep the acetone trick in mind. Might be a good way at least to remove or at least kill bugs in the wood.

Thanks

Patrice
 
Have you seen the posts on "canning"? Boiling in lacquer/thinner sol. will remove the water and kill off the rot and the little beasties (heh heh, :D).

Jim L.
 
Yes but it may remove my few remaining braincells too. ;)

It worked. I put the burl in the oven at the minimum heat, 150F I guess. I actually forgot it in there, 2.5 hours. :o

When I shook it outside a few of the wormies fell out, nicely cooked. :D

Now back to slow drying.

Patrice
 
Great! Glad it worked for you, hope the wife did not get to upset. It would have been a shame for them little bugs to get the burl for themselves. :)
 
The reason I forgot the burl in there is because there was no odor whatsoever. I used a water based varnish and you could only smell a little something when opening the door but it was more the wood than the varnish itself.

Patrice
 
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