Is this burl ?

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Natlek

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Jun 9, 2015
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Friend of mine give to me this piece of wood .I cut little piece to see inside but I m not sure is this burl or not ? I don t know how you call this tree ....hornbeam tree ?? Someone to draw line which way is best to cut this wood ? Sorry for bad picture ..............

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I had some butternut that was similar...that looks like either a burl or a strange growing second branch. I wound up cutting mine like I was sawing Y shaped slabs. I got some amazing rays and curling grained pieces. The rays were especially bright and wild in the crotch area.
 
Yes, it is a burl. But it will not look what what you may be expecting.

A burl that is going to be full of the eyes knifemakers love so much is going to have a surface that looks covered in spokes, called a pin burl. That is going to be more of a curly, wild grain. Still beautiful, but maybe no what you are expecting.
 
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I would cut the outside off of four sides to make as large of a cube that I could. That will show you the grain from four sides. Then you can decide which way to slice it.


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Thank you guys for your help and confirm that is burl :thumbup: Scottydawg , that was excellent idea , thanks ! One more question . This wood was cut last autumn , how long to keep it to dry before I cut ?
 
Hopefully it hasn't shrunk too much & cracked or checked too badly. Once it's sawed, wax the end grain & let it sit a while. 1" per year is a good rule of thumb for air drying lumber in general, but we can do better here in the desert. It depends on your climate. We have 4% humidity & 100 plus degrees here in the summer, so wood can dry too fast & check.
 
I have a reasonably cheap moisture meter....paid $40ish for it. It makes it easy to figure out where wood is. What Noseoil says about an 1"/year is a good rule of thumb but stuff does dry at different rates depending on temperature and humidity of the area. Some of the wood I have cut into2x6x18 pieces winds up being around 11-12%(which is about as good as it gets on the west coast of canada) in a bit over a year if i keep it indoors. Other stuff takes longer. The moisture meter makes it easy.
 
Well , rotten and hollow inside.....nothing usable left !
Now I have another candidate :) Friend of me gave it to me today , he want knife for this :D This is Mulberry ..... but is it burl or not , guys ? It is very heavy ...... ??
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PS. It is cut today ,should I wait to dry or I can cut it in usable sizes now ?
 
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Paint the interior surface with wood glue or latex paint. Then wait for a couple years before you cut it up more...
 
the mulberry is burl and it makes beautiful scales I have a couple of old cap and ball civil war pistols that wear mulberry. its a bit harder than walnut and looks a lot richer colored
 
Yes, anything that will seal the wood. You are trying to slow down the water leaving the wood. It has to dry slowly or it will crack a lot.
 
Thanks again ! This one look solid and I hope that will be nice inside , not like previous one .
 
A.McPherson said:
Paint the interior surface with wood glue or latex paint. Then wait for a couple years before you cut it up more...
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Wait couple years .............wait , but i can t wait :) Nothing spectacular inside but not bad to , I like it .But it is not enough dry inside :mad: Would this work ? If i leave them there couple months or they will bend anyway ?
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Natlek said:
Would this work ? If i leave them there couple months or they will bend anyway ?
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Well, seeing as how they're already cut, I guess you'll tell us in a couple of months. I'd be as worried, if not more, about splitting and checking of the slices. With them pressed together like that, how will the middle ones dry?
 
weo said:
Well, seeing as how they're already cut, I guess you'll tell us in a couple of months. I'd be as worried, if not more, about splitting and checking of the slices. With them pressed together like that, how will the middle ones dry?
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From side ? I have no idea .....maybe i should put them in some box ?
 
Well basically you're just gonna be at the whim of the wood. At this point i'd cut them to close, maybe 6mm, to final width and then stack them with spacers in between each. They'll dry faster that way, and thicker, shorter pieces will warp less than longer thinner ones.
 
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