The Burl Brothers (Cherry that is)

[Baxter Smith]

About a month ago I posted a vase turned from a cherry burl I had retrieved from the woods behind my house. There were actually two burls. I turned the larger one but just set the small one aside.
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Growing a bit tired of roughing out green stuff recently, I went back and mounted this one between centers.
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Roughed out what I thought might be a usable shape.
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Turned it around, did a little more refining, then gave it a coat of shellac and put some CA in any cracks since I am pretty slow at hollowing.
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Found plenty of ants inside but that wasn’t all. After sanding the little nub from where I parted it off, I used the airgun to blow off the dust and found myself being mooned.
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I wanted to take a picture of its business end, but sqeezed a little too hard pulling him out. ( the wet spots)
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[Baxter Smith]

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10 1/4 h x 8 w(depending on which way you measure);):)
Finished with AO.

The Burl Brothers

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All thoughts and suggestions are appreciated!

[Chip Sutherland]

Very Cool wood. Nicely turned. I like the picture progression. That's a large void.

[Terry Quiram]

Holy cow how did you keep that thing together???? Wonderful piece.

[jwjerry w kowalski]

Baxter, those are both beauties, I've come into some cherry burl myself lately, now if only I had a couple of burl brothers to help.

[charlie knighton]

very nice , Baxter, thanks for sharing

[Dennis Ford]

That is a beautiful piece. Very nice form!

[David E Keller]

I want it! That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen... Love the voids and bark and color, but the form is fantastic too! The little brother is a little fuller figured in his lower half compared to his taller sibling... Me likey! Thanks for sharing!

[David DeCristoforo]

Hey... that's cheating. That's only half a turning! What happened to the rest?:D

I've seen plenty of pieces with voids in them but this takes the cake!!! One thing... I'll bet it was easy to see where the cutter was while you were hollowing it!

[Scott Hackler]

Geez! Some people will turn anything to get out of cleaning out through a small opening! Really excellent work. It turned out great.

[Tim Thiebaut]

Wow the final outcome is beautiful Baxter, nice seeing it go from a log to the final product like that.

[Curt Fuller]

Baxter, that's as good as it gets! One of my all time favorites for sure!

[Jeff Fagen]

Now that's art!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Baxter that is one beautiful piece. I was wondering the same thing. How did you hold that thing together. Well done.

[John Keeton]

It appears to me you turned a void that happens to have a little wood around in places!! Wonderful piece, Baxter, and what a challenge!!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Excellent Baxter! Love the form, the wood and all the character! Exceptionally nice work on this! Thanks for sharing!

[Roger Chandler]

What an adventure! Too good for words.........................

[Jim Burr]

Oh my gosh!!! That is the coolist vase Baxter!!! I didn't look at the progression pic's, only the final. When I get my jaw off the floor, those will be next. Just a big WOW!!!
I did a double take at the title...my BIL, Steve is The Burl Brothers.

[Greg Just]

Very ncie Baxter. I have a burl like that sitting in my garage. I hope my outcome is as nice as yours.

[Jon Lanier]

Dude! I agree with all comments. Wow.

[David Reed]

Yes, very high on the wow scale. Love the forms and, as you must know, I love turning air and you are now the supreme air turner in the creek.
Are you going to name them 'Fat B..... and Mini Me'???

[Hayes Rutherford]

Wow, those are cool, they remind me of artifacts from ancient ruins. The other brothers are cool too.

[Michael James]

Very nice in all regards. Must really suck to have all that wood you have to navigate around. Luckily your helpers seem consistently on the job!

[Kathy Marshall]

Very very cool Baxter!

[Don Alexander]

where's the wood? :eek::D:eek:

i would love to be able to rotate that one around and watch the profile errrrrrrrr now ya see it and now ya don't hehe how'd ya get that bark to grow on air? uhmmm can't wait to see what the other half looks like

if i wasn't so tired i could probably come up with a few more or maybe .......................

how bout calling it Ch"air"y Burl

ok that was lame i admit it

awesome job , Baxter if you get tired of looking at it (trying to actually find it? )
i would be glad to store it for you :D

[Michelle Rich]

simply amazing, Baxter. Astounding air vessels. In the future, just skip the wood and post new vessels entitled AIR BAXTER

[Keith E Byrd]

Really nice and impressive! Great photos! Now a question that my wife asked me: How do you know all the worms are out of the piece?

[John Hart]

Excellent, Mr. Smith!!! Can I have the worm? ;)

[Sid Matheny]

Never seen a piece with that much void stay together. What a great job you did with it. A++

Sid

[Baxter Smith]

Thanks for your thoughts!

...I'll bet it was easy to see where the cutter was while you were hollowing it!
The visibility did get better and better David. Calipers and Lazers weren't really needed on this one.

Holy cow how did you keep that thing together???? Wonderful piece.
The top and bottom was solid Terry, though there wasn't much left on one part of the neck by the time I was done.

......Now a question that my wife asked me: How do you know all the worms are out of the piece?
Not sure about that one! Does it matter?;):)


Excellent, Mr. Smith!!! Can I have the worm? ;)
Sorry, too late...I will reserve the next one just for you. Have seen some tequilla worms but never a lacquer one! Just what a true artist needs!:D

[bob svoboda]

Really nice work on that gnarly burl, Baxter.

[Bob Wolfe]

Great Job Baxter, those are some really beautiful formavoids (I just made that word up). What I can't get over is how you guys see something that looks like that nasty log and picture the inner beauty of it and then make it happen like you did. I guess I'm just not there yet. I've got a bunch of nasty wood laying around, so maybe somewhere in there lies a gem like these waiting to be discovered.

BTW, Thanks for sharing the step by step processing sequence and pics.

Bob

[Lionel Mercier]

Hi Baxter,
Hidden Treasure
and well kept...

[Bill Wyko]

Absolutely exquisite on both accounts. I found myself repeating "WOW, WOW, WOW" You are a true master, congratulations on such a fine job on both.

[Russell Eaton]

Baxter that is a beauty. It will be tough to top that. Thanks for showing and giving some inspiration.

[Greg Ketell]

Wow THAT is gorgeous!! And I agree with John Keeton, it seems you were turning air with just a bit of wood attached to it. Amazing that you were able to keep it in one piece!

[Baxter Smith]

Thanks again to all for viewing and taking the time to comment.

......What I can't get over is how you guys see something that looks like that nasty log and picture the inner beauty of it and then make it happen like you did. I guess I'm just not there yet. I've got a bunch of nasty wood laying around, so maybe somewhere in there lies a gem like these waiting to be discovered.

BTW, Thanks for sharing the step by step processing sequence and pics.

Bob
I am pretty new to this Bob and still can't see much...but I am amazed at how solid the inside of these old cherry burls are every time I turn one. They may not look like much on the outside with almost all bark and sapwood rotted away, but once you get past the weathered surface, they are amazingly solid and the color has a lot of depth to it. Glad you enjoyed the sequence pictures. Except for the end ones, they were all just cell phone pics. Its easy to stop and pull it out of my pocket when I remember to.:rolleyes: I find them interesting to go back and look at later.