Cutting a burl into Knife Handle Blocks - Step by Step

[hellgap]

I appreciate the time you take to teach us how to cut our own burl. I always wondered what that knobby thing was on the tree lol. I will be looking for birch next time up north. Is common elm burl anygood ?? We have lots of elm around here.

 

[NickWheeler]

Dang Mark.... I really appreciate you posting this. I've cut quite a few burls up, and never did really know what I was doing. Much like most things I do!

I'd never seen a buckeye burl in the process stages like that... VERY COOL! I knew about box elder turning red but didn't realize it was a similar process for buckeye and the blue color.

My first impression was that the burl wasn't real big.... until you said that slab you knocked off it was slightly thicker than a handle block.

Can I have that maple burl??????


Oh, and what size is that Grizzly saw???

 

[timcsaw]

Thanks for the tutorial Mark... I have my eye on a number of burls (baby size in comparison to those you have), and I have a couple drying in the shop... as well as some nice big crotches. Mostly cherry and maple.

A couple of questions; Many of the burls I get are fresh cut. Is it necessary to dry them for years before cutting them, or can I cut them into "larger than block size" and THEN let them dry? I have a wood supplier close by that would be willing to throw my burls into his ovens to dry, but I'm not sure if I should cut them up to some extent first, or give them the entire burl to put into their kilns to dry.

Thanks again for showing us how you do this. For me, cutting into a fresh burl is like Christmas!! "Whatch' gonna get?"!!!!:thumbup:

 

[Dan Seaver]

Wow, very nice! Thank you for sharing! I never knew how much thought went into processing burl.

Just a question. Wouldn't it be possible to keep a colony of the pink or purple bacteria? Hypothetically speaking you would be able to kill the blue bacteria by sealing the outside of the wood and then unseal the wood, drill a few small holes, and inject some of the bacteria colony into the wood. It works for fungi so I would imagine it would work with bacteria.

BTW I can't wait to see what that maple looks like, I might snag a piece if I have the extra cash.

 

[Burl Source]

I appreciate the time you take to teach us how to cut our own burl. I always wondered what that knobby thing was on the tree lol. I will be looking for birch next time up north. Is common elm burl anygood ?? We have lots of elm around here.

With birch try to find dome that is starting to spalt. It gets real cool colors but will get punky pretty quick. I found some one time that a tree service cut in the fall. The log sections had been dumped about a month earlier. When I cut one the spalting made real nice yellow and black patterns. I told myself I would mill up the rest in the spring because it looked so nice. By spring it had all turned to punky mush. In a nutshell, birch decomposes quickly so it has to be cut and placed in a place to dry right away.

As for the elm. I am not sure the difference between common and English Elm. We had someone bring us some English elm burl from a tree cut down in their yard several years back. The burl was forgotten then milled a few years ago. It was a lot like Maple burl but has real nice mustard yellow and chocolate brown colored spalting. Good looking stuff. I say if you can get elm burl it will probably be real good stuff.

 

[Burl Source]

Thanks for the tutorial Mark... I have my eye on a number of burls (baby size in comparison to those you have), and I have a couple drying in the shop... as well as some nice big crotches. Mostly cherry and maple.

A couple of questions; Many of the burls I get are fresh cut. Is it necessary to dry them for years before cutting them, or can I cut them into "larger than block size" and THEN let them dry? I have a wood supplier close by that would be willing to throw my burls into his ovens to dry, but I'm not sure if I should cut them up to some extent first, or give them the entire burl to put into their kilns to dry.

Thanks again for showing us how you do this. For me, cutting into a fresh burl is like Christmas!! "Whatch' gonna get?"!!!!:thumbup:

Most wood you would seal the end grain then let it air dry a few months before putting it in a kiln to dry. But with a burl the grain goes every different direction so you don't have end grain to seal before going into the kiln. What can happen is a lot of cracks when the burl is dried too fast. We let ours air dry and still can get cracks. You don't always know what will happen till it happens. If you have a bunch it may be worth experimenting though. Maybe cut some blocks and see what happens.

 

[Burl Source]

Wow, very nice! Thank you for sharing! I never knew how much thought went into processing burl.

Just a question. Wouldn't it be possible to keep a colony of the pink or purple bacteria? Hypothetically speaking you would be able to kill the blue bacteria by sealing the outside of the wood and then unseal the wood, drill a few small holes, and inject some of the bacteria colony into the wood. It works for fungi so I would imagine it would work with bacteria.

BTW I can't wait to see what that maple looks like, I might snag a piece if I have the extra cash.

I tried innoculating the wood but all I get are these small mushrooms that turn blue at the stems when I pull them off.
With the buckeye when you get the pinks and purples it will be mixed into different areas of a slab that has blues. Looks like different bacterias that can coexist. Some people save the sawdust from milling spalted wood then cover unspalted woods with the spalted sawdust to get that to spalt.

 

[Dan Seaver]

It sounds like your colony was contaminated. Some fungi will overwhelm and kill the bacteria. I suggest boiling buck eye shavings for an hour to sterilize them and then transfer them to a bag that has been sterilized with alcohol. Toss in a few pieces of the pink buckeye that still has live bacteria on it. Wait until most of the bag is "contaminated" Before taking a few shavings out and then soak in a little water and agitate the water to help break off some bacteria. Inject the bacteria solution into the wood and hope for the best.

BTW only fungi has fruiting body's (mushrooms), mold and bacteria do not. Man I wish you were closer, I would be thrilled to help make pink and purple buckeye available at a decent cost.

 

[Allen Newberry]

Most wood you would seal the end grain then let it air dry a few months before putting it in a kiln to dry. But with a burl the grain goes every different direction so you don't have end grain to seal before going into the kiln.

Does that mean that the burls are set out with no sealing done on them at all? I would love to learn more about the steps from the forest to the saw.

 

[Burl Source]

It sounds like your colony was contaminated. Some fungi will overwhelm and kill the bacteria. I suggest boiling buck eye shavings for an hour to sterilize them and then transfer them to a bag that has been sterilized with alcohol. Toss in a few pieces of the pink buckeye that still has live bacteria on it. Wait until most of the bag is "contaminated" Before taking a few shavings out and then soak in a little water and agitate the water to help break off some bacteria. Inject the bacteria solution into the wood and hope for the best.

BTW only fungi has fruiting body's (mushrooms), mold and bacteria do not. Man I wish you were closer, I would be thrilled to help make pink and purple buckeye available at a decent cost.

Hey Dan,
I was just joking. With your avatar I thought you would catch that I was talking about the Psylocibe Cubensis mushrooms. I will be watching for the atypical colors and do some experimenting with creating the pink/purple colors in the summer.

 

[Burl Source]

Does that mean that the burls are set out with no sealing done on them at all? I would love to learn more about the steps from the forest to the saw.

Hello Allen,
We handle our wood a lot different than what is considered the norm. In the future I will post photos start to finish what we do.

 

[Allen Newberry]

Hello Allen,
We handle our wood a lot different than what is considered the norm. In the future I will post photos start to finish what we do.

I will be looking forward to it. Thanks.

 

[oldwolf]

You have probably noticed there are a lot of voids.
For buckeye, this is a very solid piece. Usually there will be a whole lot more voids. Some of the voids will be bark pockets while others will have dirt or rocks inside. Because of that Buckeye burl is tough on bandsaw blades and will have a lot of waste.

Next I take the 2 slabs I cut off of these pieces. You could just cut these into strips but I prefer to look at them and decide how to cut them next for the best looking handle blocks. With a pen I made marks for my next cuts.

I cut along those guidelines to make the strips that I would later trim into blocks.

After that I trimmed the strips into what I felt were the best blocks.

It's kind of hard to see in the photo but these blocks will all have very 3 dimensional bubbly figure when they are sanded and finished.

Less than 1/2 of the wood from this burl was suitable for knife handles but I still got some really nice blocks.

Now time to start sanding.

Buckeye is one of the faster drying woods. These blocks should be ready to use in just a month or so if stored indoors in a heated area. If you want them to get even darker blue, then you would put them in a dark unheated place and the blue will usually get even darker. Myself, I like the contrasting colors these blocks show right now.

Mark is sure right about Buckeye being tough to cut. Don't try it with one of those expensive slicing blades. One little spark and your $30.00 blade is toast. Dirt and teeny rocks can sure hide in there. Thanks for the tutorial, Mark. I'm cutting some now. I have basically lined it out like you do, but it's a crap shoot for sure.

 

[Phillip Dobson]

Mark is sure right about Buckeye being tough to cut. Don't try it with one of those expensive slicing blades. One little spark and your $30.00 blade is toast. Dirt and teeny rocks can sure hide in there. Thanks for the tutorial, Mark. I'm cutting some now. I have basically lined it out like you do, but it's a crap shoot for sure.

Same with thuya burl. I pretty much destroyed a hand-saw blade trying to get through a rock. Worth the effort, though.

 

[Burton Harruff]

Thanks for walking us through this process, very informative.

 

[Larry D. Davis]

Same with thuya burl. I pretty much destroyed a hand-saw blade trying to get through a rock. Worth the effort, though.

Since Thuya burl comes from Morocco it must have been a Mo ROC o, huh? You were hoping for Les ROC o? hahahahahah

Cutting a 500# Thuya burl on my sawmill can be frustrating for sure..

 

[Dan Seaver]

Hey Dan,
I was just joking. With your avatar I thought you would catch that I was talking about the Psylocibe Cubensis mushrooms. I will be watching for the atypical colors and do some experimenting with creating the pink/purple colors in the summer.

Doh! I'm a bit slow sometimes. My main interest in fungi is a species that produces hydrocarbons similar to diesel. Buuuut if those were legalized...

I wish you the best in your pursuit of controlling the coloring of buckeye. I think that its possible but will take some work. :thumbup:

 

[SHEBOP]

Thanks for this fascinating thread!:thumbup:

 

[Larry D. Davis]

.

Just a question. Wouldn't it be possible to keep a colony of the pink or purple bacteria? Hypothetically speaking you would be able to kill the blue bacteria by sealing the outside of the wood and then unseal the wood, drill a few small holes, and inject some of the bacteria colony into the wood. It works for fungi so I would imagine it would work with bacteria.

It's not a bacteria, but a fungus which causes the blue color in buckeye. Same type that causes blue color in pine. The red stain in box elder is also a fungus. These types of fungi do not destroy wood as does the spalting fungi.

I've tried many methods to induce spalting in wood without any consistent success and would be skeptical of claims to such. Very hard to fool mother nature. Here's an actual patent application for spalting and blue stain inoculation process, but I'd be skeptical of it also until seeing the proven, consistent results....but that's just me

http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20080226847

 

[Burl Source]

Larry is correct. My mistake in substituting bacteria for fungi.