cherry burl cracking

[dan petroski]

is there any way to salvage cherry burls? they spider crack like crazy and i don't do pens.

[Dick Strauss]

Dan,
-How green is the wood to start?
-Are you sealing them with something like anchorseal prior to turning?
-Is the cracking happening before or after turning?
-Are you bagging them after turning to slow the drying process?
-How thick are you turning them versus the overall dimensions of the -piece?
-Pictures of the issue?

It is pretty common for green cherry to crack if you don't take the right precautions while turning and drying...

Providing more information might help us guide you better. You may be able to fill the cracks and save the piece. We may be able to show you how to increase your chances of success in the future.

[dan petroski]

Dick the problem is that a fellow brought me a half a pickup load of burls. most of which were cherry. never having worked or even seen a cherry burl i didn't take the necessary precautions with it. i was busy milling lumber.
now it is a matter of salvage either using the small pieces for bottle stoppers or trying to turn larger pieces and using something like plexetone or ?
this is beautiful wood and i would like to salvage some of it because it doesnt even burn well
all ideas will be tried thanks

[Barry Elder]

I would be happy to help you salvage the cherry, just ship it to me and I will get to work on it right away! Hee! Hee! Haw!

[Dick Strauss]

Dan,
Please don't burn the burls. I would take some of the burls as well even if they are cracked!

Cracked pieces aren't necessarily ruined...you just have to want to save them! Many cracked pieces can be turned to completion and look quite nice. You might end up turning away the cracks if they are centered on the burls. You can also fill the cracks with epoxy/coffee or CA glue/coffee mixes to make them look like natural gum/pitch pockets or bark inclusions.

We may be able to guide you better with what we'd do to fix specific burls if you post some pictures.

Take care,
Dick

[dan petroski]

i'll rough one out. how do i post a picture on this site?

[Steve Schlumpf]

Dan - here is the tutorial on posting photos. Let me know if you have any questions on it: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=25115

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Dan with real burls the eyes all will shrink when the wood dries, it is a bit like a whole bunch of endgrain pieces all bundle together, each piece will shrink smaller so they pull away from each other, and it will be nearly impossible to prevent that, you wouldn't get large splits but a lot of small splits.
you could leave them as is or fill all the splits when the piece is dry.
I'll show a coarse Willow burl here that shows the splits that it had gotten at that time, after another year or so it had still more, I filled these as they appeared, and now it is pretty well stable and staying as is, and now after 6 or 7 years it's color has also much improved, it's a keeper for us here.

You will see that the splits are in random directions, as the grain goes every-which-way.
So some splits are in a circle kind of way other go across an eye and other eyes have different directions, I hope this does make some cense to you, have fun and take care :)

Oh one more thing, with finer burl eyes you will get smaller splits of course, but the reason and principle are the same :-)