Big Leaf Maple Base

[Jonathan Spool]

190970A little bit of burl I picked up this weekend.
Around 7' at the base and 6'tall. I'm still trying to figure out the cutting plan!
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[Baxter Smith]

Now that is a BURL! Can you just split it through the pith?;):)

[David DeCristoforo]

Holy cannoli! That's awesome!!! I would try to cut each one of those "warts" out whole. If you can split it in half without cutting through one of them, do that first. The knobs are going to be where the killer burl figure is. Looks like a ton of them...

[Ray Bell]

There is going to be some beautiful wood in there. I hope you had a crane to help load it.

[John Keeton]

Jonathan, you are one lucky guy!! Please don't tell me you and a buddy hoisted that sucker into the trailer!:eek:

I think cutting it laterally first is the best move - if you can get it done. It will take a long bar and a few chains I suspect.

[David E Keller]

Ha! Take that, Baxter! He'll see your measly twenty four cherry burls, and raise you one gigantic chunk of gorgeous maple goodness. :D

If you want to give Keeton a good stress test, tell him the whole thing is completely dry!:D

Congrats, Jonathan... I hope you'll share the results when turned.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Congrats Jonathan. That is one hugh huck of burl.

[Dan Forman]

Looks like one of Schweitzer's mastodon feet! Should keep you out of trouble for a while.

Dan

[gary Zimmel]

That is one sweet chunk of burl. Congrats Jonathan.

[David Reed]

That is indeed 'a hunk - a - hunk - a burning lov, uhh burl.

[Bob Bergstrom]

No matter how you cut that monster you going to have a whole bunch of prime burl stock. I wouldn't try to make them all perfect cuts. Once you have the prime ones planned, I'm sure there will be some regrets,but just look at all the good ones.

[John Hart]

Don't worry about cutting it. Just say a little incantation and they'll all come off in perfect nodules.

Sorry....I was just watching "Merlin" on TV. Kinda got caught up.

Great Score!! :)

[Jonathan Spool]

Gosh my back is killing me. It took three of us to lift that thing down from the trailer.
Actually, I estimate that it is around 7,000 to 9,000 lbs.. I couldn't move it much forward of the tandem wheels of the trailer without putting the tongue on the ground.
Best thing is that it appears to be rock free at the base. The last burl I picked up is loaded with stones, so after two years still hasn't been cut!
The top two feet appears to be primarilly fiddleback, so I might take John's advice and cut it laterally above the burls. Or, I might lop the burls off of one side and cut a slab that would hopefully be fiddleback or quilt in the center, and birdseye from the burls toward the edges. Then I can play Nakashima with a 6'slab.
Once I get it cut and sealed, I should be busy roughing out some vessels, putting the Stubby to work!
I picked up three 36" to 42" logs the following day from the same guy that although not burl, should have plenty of figure.

[Jon Nuckles]

There must have been a couple of interesting photo opportunities between your first picture and your second, but no free hands to man the camera. How did that climb into your truck?

[Jonathan Spool]

It was picked up with a track hoe and placed into the trailer. Actually it slipped out of the claws for the last foot and dropped with a crash that scared the **** out of my wife who was sitting in the truck at the time! Guess the trailer is pretty skookum as it didn't suffer any harm. As the trailer is a dump trailer, well, I dumped it out at a nearby mill, where I will work with the sawyer there, and his big equipment, for the breakdown cuts, and slab.

[David E Keller]

I think I speak for most of us here when I humbly request a photo documentary of the dismantling of that burl chunk.

[Steve Schlumpf]

I think I speak for most of us here when I humbly request a photo documentary of the dismantling of that burl chunk.

Would love to follow this through photos as it gets cut into turning blanks! Congrats on getting one of the largest burls I have ever seen! I am srue you are going to have some amazing wood in there! Have fun!

[Baxter Smith]

Ha! Take that, Baxter! He'll see your measly twenty four cherry burls, and raise you one gigantic chunk of gorgeous maple goodness. :D ....... Although I could go back and get more David... I know when to fold!:D
I am looking forward to more pictures of how you cut this up!

[David E Keller]

Although I could go back and get more David... I know when to fold!:D
I am looking forward to more pictures of how you cut this up!

(waving white flag)
I give up.:o

[Jonathan Spool]

I'll do my best to document the dismantling!
It will be a while before any finished pieces are ready to show.

[Jonathan Spool]

Well, I got the mammoth foot cut up with the help of Joe Neal at Woodwise mill. No way I could have even begun to move this thing around without Joe's backhoe (not to mention Joe's expertise with the Stihl!).
Once we started to cut into the piece, I opted out of the idea of taking a couple slabs off of it. The log just didn't lend itself well to slabbing, and besides, I had a couple other logs that I would be cutting up into 2" QS and 4" full width slabs.
Here are some pics of the process. The only one missing is the pile of 200-400lb chunks at my home. I'll get that one one later!

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[Roger Chandler]

That is a very nice piece of wood.........great figure in some of it..........thanks for showing the pics of it being handled and sawn.

[John Hart]

Oh My. I'm speechless

[Tim Thiebaut]

I am officialy jealous, that is some beautiful wood you have there, looking forward to seeing what comes out of it.

[David E Keller]

That's awesome! How does one even go about acquiring a chunk of wood like that? If I read your original post correctly, you've got another one just like it stashed somewhere awaiting cutting... What are you gonna do with all that burly goodness? Share?

[Jeff Nicol]

That is some incredible wood and you live in the right part of the country to get the Big Leaf Maple. You have a gold mine there and along with many others I am unbelievably jealous! I have not yet turned any big leaf and hope to get some soon. I have some friends in Washington and Oregon so maybe I need to take a big road trip!

I just got back from Oklahoma from a 3 day hog hunt and while I was doing some spot and stalk hunting I found 3 oak tree that were filled with burls. 2 were white oaks and the other a red oak of some sort, but the biggest white oak had 15 burls on it and most were as big as basketballs or bigger! I was just crazy and wanted to see if I could get the tree, but mybe if we go again next year, he said we need to bring him a bunch of Wisconsin cheese curds and he would fill the trailer with some Osage so maybe the burl tree will be part of the deal!


Have fun with that beautiful tree!

Jeff

[David DeCristoforo]

I'm with Tim... "officially jealous"!

[Rick Markham]

I'm with Tim... "officially jealous"!

Add me to that list.

Thanks for taking pics of the process. Now that's a chainsaw!

[Steve Campbell]

I think you should have left it whole and turned a big hollow form. You can count me in the jealous group. You should have fun with that.

Steve

[Jonathan Spool]

The other logs I picked up have some quilt and fiddleback, but no burl or birseye. I will still get some real nice lumber out of them. The more figured one is going to be full width slabs 4"" thick. This will give me the option to resaw it in the shop, make something slabbish, and still thick enough for many turning projects if a great piece of figure shows up. I'll be spending some time next week knocking the huge chunks down to blanks. My little Kubota can handle moving them around!

[Karl Card]

I do wish I had the problem of "how am I going to cut this"....