Scored 400 pounds of maple burl today and need milling advice

C

Craig Daniel

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Feb 17, 2016
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I went to a friends house today and was looking at a broken down 40 inch base maple tree he wanted me to cut up for firewood, The tree had 5 large burls growing on the side of it. I cut them all off and got them home to inspect the contents and wow they are all full of eyes and figure, There are also some spalted burls. What would be the best way to mill these out into blocks for dyeing and stabilizing? I have a chainsaw, Table saw, Band saw but is not too reliable, A reciprocating saw, Miter saw and a planer. Please give me some guidance so I can get the best yield out of these beautiful burls. Thanks for all the help in advance.
 
If you can give a few pictures, that will really help someone wanting to help. I don't do pictures and know how that limits me getting or giving answers.
Frank
 
Chainsaw first to get rough sizes, then band saw to do the slices you need. Leave some extra for clean-up, then dress down with a sharp planer blade. If there's to much chipping due to grain, just leave the saw cut finish from a band saw & sand flat on a rough belt prior to treatment.
 
Sorry but pics are hard for me to get loaded here without my wifes help, She is busy with other things and I don't want to get on her bad side. There are 2 burls that are approx 2 feet by 2 feet by 1 foot thick and 3 burls that are 2 foot by 18 inches by 10 inches thick. I have several small burls that will yield 10-15 handles each, I guess I will have some double dyed and that a try to see how I like it.
 
SBuzek said:
paint the fresh cut ends and let it dry for a year or so.
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Yes. You will need to dry them for a few years. Rule of thumb with air drying lumber is 1 year/inch. Painting the fresh cut end helps it dry more evenly and stops a lot of the cracks that will occur from uneven drying. If you don't dry them you will wind up with a lot of checks and cracks and unusable wood. There are some great tutorials here regarding milling burls by one of the wood sellers....maybe burl source or greenberg...cant remember. But the tutorial shows you which direction to cut to show the grain properly.
 
Yes. Do not cut them to size yet. Let them dry at least a year maybe 2. Then cut into oversize boards and check moisture content. If still too wet sticker and let dry until below 10%. This is why so many do not process green burls/wood. You can build yourself a small drying chamber> I made one out of a small refrigerator, a thermostat and 2 light bulbs. I have dried quite a bit of wood.

I did a very wet camphor burl when I first started. I cut the blocks to size then dried them. They did not crack but the shrank to almost 1/3 there original size and warped badly. I started a second one, this time I let it air dry for 2 years. Then cut to size and dried in chamber. Came out perfect. This is why you need to take your time and dry them slowly. Now to get it all stabilized.
 
After drying, you could locate someone with a horizontal bandsaw (or rent one) to cut them into slabs. Chainsaw will work fine but your loosing a 1/4" of wood with every cut you make, even more when you consider that a chainsaw cut will not leave a flat surface and will require more surfacing to make into flat blocks. A horizontal bandsaw will save you a lot of valuable wood.
 
There is a local guy who has 300+ slabs who has been in the wood business for 30+ years. He takes a log and cuts it to rough dimensions, then stickers it and lets it air dry for years. Seems like the thinnest rough dimensions I see from Andy are 1.5" I bought a 4" thick maple slab from him that had been drying in the barn for 3 years and it was 18% moisture content. It took another 7 months to get down to 11% and I was amazed by how much the slab moved over that time. It developed a cup that was about 5/8" corner to corner over the 7 foot length. It had some checks down the centre that opened up to 3/8" across and then closed again. This movement was happening with the ends painted and me turning the slab every few days.
It's important to dry it right so you don't wind up turning it into a mess.
 
Here's another question, There are 3 burls that are spalted and punky with ant holes in parts of them. These burls are very light and "seem" to be pretty dry, Could I mill these 1/4" over dimensions needed and be ok to do them now? The 3 live burls were coated with paint on the cut side and have been stored for a few years down the road. This is far the best find I have had in my 9 years of knife making. Thanks for all the help and advice!
 
Craig Daniel said:
Here's another question, There are 3 burls that are spalted and punky with ant holes in parts of them. These burls are very light and "seem" to be pretty dry, Could I mill these 1/4" over dimensions needed and be ok to do them now? The 3 live burls were coated with paint on the cut side and have been stored for a few years down the road. This is far the best find I have had in my 9 years of knife making. Thanks for all the help and advice!
Click to expand...

Check the moisture content. They need to be around 9% to stabilize them which I would expect you will do if they are soft and punky. It's next to impossible to "feel" what the moisture content is. A friend of mine has an expensive moisture meter that I was using. My neighbor had one of these http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-Phone-Works-Moisture-Meter-ES3000/205489757 and it was reasonably close to the expensive one. Within 0.6% when we compared them. There are ways to get the wood to dry quicker but I haven't tried them yet.
Randy
 
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