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- Dec 7, 2008
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This thread shows how I cut up a big maple burl cap into knife handle blocks. The burl I am using in this thread is a maple burl cap that was harvested in the fall of 2008.
You probably noticed that the exterior is gray instead of a golden color. That is because I left this cap outside to season instead of inside our burl barn. Most of our burl caps are pressure washed and stored inside a barn while they dry. That will maintain a clean golden color on the inside and outside of the burl. I like to take some of the burl caps and leave them outside to season and weather naturally. Under one of the trees here I place the burl cap with the cut surface against the ground and just leave it there for a year or so. By doing this the burl absorbs some of the minerals from the ground as well as bacterias from the rain run off. In the end the burl will have more interesting coloring than the plain white / gold coloring. Some I will leave for years and allow them to spalt. We have so much wood here that we can experiment with. If I ruin a piece it becomes firewood.
This burl cap is about 2 feet by 3 feet and about 7 inches thick at the dome of the cap. It was harvested from the side of the trunk. Maple burls form as a bulge on the side of the trunk, or as a root burl, like a big onion at ground level. Burls like the one in this thread tend to have more compact figure than the larger underground burls.
This is a photo of the burl cap before I started cutting.
You probably noticed that the exterior is gray instead of a golden color. That is because I left this cap outside to season instead of inside our burl barn. Most of our burl caps are pressure washed and stored inside a barn while they dry. That will maintain a clean golden color on the inside and outside of the burl. I like to take some of the burl caps and leave them outside to season and weather naturally. Under one of the trees here I place the burl cap with the cut surface against the ground and just leave it there for a year or so. By doing this the burl absorbs some of the minerals from the ground as well as bacterias from the rain run off. In the end the burl will have more interesting coloring than the plain white / gold coloring. Some I will leave for years and allow them to spalt. We have so much wood here that we can experiment with. If I ruin a piece it becomes firewood.
This burl cap is about 2 feet by 3 feet and about 7 inches thick at the dome of the cap. It was harvested from the side of the trunk. Maple burls form as a bulge on the side of the trunk, or as a root burl, like a big onion at ground level. Burls like the one in this thread tend to have more compact figure than the larger underground burls.
This is a photo of the burl cap before I started cutting.
It's great you make the time to share these how-to threads with us. We REALLY appreciate it. THANKS!!!
