WIP - Trash or Treasure

Burl Source

Burl Source

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Dec 7, 2008
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This thread will be a work in progress.

The photos show a piece of wood we traded for today. A customer came in today and wanted us to do a sculptural carving for them. This piece of wood was something they had stored for quite a few years but it wasn't going to be suitable for the project they had in mind. My boss called me over to ask if I thought it would be good knife handle wood. I said I think so. So the customer traded this piece for a portion of the cost of what we are making for them. I hope it turns out to be good wood because my boss gave a lot for it.

We really won't know whether it will be trash or treasure until I start cutting it up. Here are a couple photos showing what I will be working with.

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It is really old and crusty looking. I am sure at least half will be waste, but here is what really caught my eye.

r28004.jpg


The outer surface shows small pins all over packed together real tight. That usually gives a good indication of what you will find inside. Looks to me like there will be lots of small eyes with figure like webbing around the eyes. ......or not.

My two concerns are; checks on the cut side (how deep will they go) and bug holes in the sapwood (will they be only in the sapwood or....?)

I am going to start cutting this piece tomorrow.

My guess is that we will find treasure.
But how much?
 
gixxer said:
so then what kind of wood is it? Inquiring minds want to know...
Click to expand...

Sorry,
Old Growth Redwood burl. Dry as a bone and weighs about double what it should.

Turns out as we talk the guy has been making knives for over 25 years too so he knows what I will be doing with it. I'll probably need to save some for him if all turns out well.

Time to close up shop now.
If I don't at least cut off a piece now I'll be thinking about it all night.
 
I couldn't help but cut off a piece last night for a quick look. I cut off a 10 inch piece from one end. It felt heavy so I weighed the piece. 16 pounds. Much heavier than I expected.
cb29001.jpg


The good news, bug holes are only in the sapwood and the surface checks are less than 1/2 inch deep. Now it's time to do more cutting to see how it looks.
 
For the next step I made a freehand cut to divide the piece in half. I followed the grain lengthwise to get 2 pieces to work from.
bs29002.jpg


Next I cut a 2 inch wide strip from one of the halves. My goal here is to cut a strip that will be perfectly quartersawn. This will affect how the grain is oriented along the top and bottom of the block as you will see soon.
bs29003.jpg

bs29004.jpg
 
This is the 2 inch wide slab I just cut. I laid it in it's side and marked how I want to make my next cut. By following the grain for this cut the blocks will be flat sawn on the faces and quartersawn on the top and bottom edges.
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Now double checking the cut I see the grain is oriented like I wanted.
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Even the grain on the ends looks good.
bs29008.jpg
 
Next step is to take this 2 inch thick piece and cut off strips 1&1/4 inches wide.
f002.jpg


Now I turn them on their sides to see what the face of these blocks will look like.
f003.jpg


I think they are looking really good. Just what I was hoping for. Now it's time to trim and sand a couple blocks to see exactly what we have here.
 
Next step I true up the blocks with my drum sander. This makes it so the blocks are flat and will have even thickness and width.
blk002.jpg


The drum sander has 36 grit paper so I can use it like a planer but no tear out.

After that I go to my stationary belt sander. With a 120 grit belt I clean up the blocks a little more.
blk003.jpg

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Now that the block is a little cleaner I spray it with a light coat of aerosol lacquer. This way I can see what the figure is like without wetting the wood. It also gives the wood a little extra protection until it gets used.
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One of the things about this burl that I really like is how much figure there is in a small area. Looks a lot like Thuya Burl to me.
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Later I will try to get a few better photos indoors. I'll also get weight and dimensions so we can calculate the density of this burl.

So far I know it is harder, heavier and a lot nicer than normal redwood burl. Once in a while we get lucky and someone pulls out a piece of the old stuff that they have had stashed for a long time. I think we got real lucky with this piece. As for the question "Trash or Treasure" I vote treasure. I will be saving as much of this for myself as I can get away with.
 
amcardon said:
That is really beautiful wood! Nice score Mark!
Click to expand...

You never know what's gonna show up around here. Today a guy showed up with a couple slabs from his grandfather back in the 60s. They are covered with resin and look real gross. It's going to be messy but I think I will get some cool stuff from them as well.


.....or I'll just make a big mess.
 
I was curious how this would look with a finish. I started by sanding to 400 grit and then a CA glue finish since that would dry fast. Being a holiday weekend we have lots of tourists here today. I was pulled away several times so there are runs and dust in the finish. This is the world's worst finish but the wood still looks pretty good.

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I was wondering if any of you could calculate the density of this wood.

Until now I had just been going by my thought, "this feels a lot heavier and harder than normal redwood". What I did was take a piece of normal redwood burl and maple burl and trimmed them to the same size as a piece of redwood from this burl. Then I weighed them on a scale.

Normal Redwood Burl weighed 48 grams
Maple Burl weighed 75 grams
This Redwood Burl weighed 90 grams

The pieces are 5&1/2 inches long x 1&1/2 inches wide x 1&1/16 inches thick.
Can anyone calculate the density with this information?

r31001.jpg
 
density=mass/volume

so 90/(5.5*1.5*1.0625)=90/8.766=10.267 g/in^3 nonstandard units to say the least
 
Density should be measured in either grams per cubic centimeter, or ounces per cubic inch. I don't think I've ever seen grams per inch before?

redwood .36 gm/cm3
Maple .56 g/cm3
This stuff .67 g/cm3
Water 1 g/cm3
 
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