Taking bark off a burl.....how do you do it?

[Roger Chandler]

After my recent foray into the "dark side" of burls............I want to find out if turning the bark off a burl is the wrong approach. Should one try to get it off by prying so as to preserve the figure in the sapwood, and retain most of the figure?

As I mentioned in an earlier post............I am not very experienced with burls........have only turned three to date and one was a piece that had no bark [redwood burl]

How do you proceed to getting at and keeping most of what makes a burl so desirable? Is it mostly the characteristics of an individual piece of wood, and one just has to take his chance by turning it off, or is there a better way?

[Curt Fuller]

My experience with burl is that if it is dry the bark will almost fall off. But if it's still somewhat green it needs to be coaxed a little. I have some old dental tools, sort of some curved pick type things that I can get under the bark and pick at it. If you had some of those picks that came with the old nut cracker sets, the things you use to dig a pecan from the shell, I think they would work well too.

[Roger Chandler]

maybe something like one of these..........

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-piece-pick-and-hook-set-66836.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/160x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_13802.jpg

http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/160x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_15151.jpg


Stupid Vortex! :rolleyes:

[Scott Hackler]

The burl dealers will power wash some of the burls to remove them, but I suspect the bark had dried on those.

[David E Keller]

For hollow forms, I usually orient the bark toward the top of the form as the best figure tends to be just beneath it. I usually just turn it off, but often I'll drill a hole in the bark with a forstner bit to allow for positioning the drive center. I stop the lathe pretty often early on to check on things, and I'll peel away anything that looks or feels loose. I've got one of those knock-off carbide roughers that I'll use sometimes, but I generally use a bowl gouge.

[John Keeton]

Roger, unless you are trying to preserve the bark as part of a design feature, I generally just turn it off, and let the faceshield take the brunt of it - stopping frequently to remove larger pieces. I use a dental pick to get small pieces that may remain in an void, etc.

Like David, and most, I try to orient the bark side to the top as I like the eyes of the burl on top, with the rays coming up the side. However, every now and then, it makes for an interesting effect to do the opposite. The turning I have in progress is done with the rays running across the top and bottom.

[Robert Henrickson]

It would depend on the piece. Take your best guess, based on suggestions given here, and start. Once you start, you may however find something that will change your mind and approach. I often tend to regard bark as an aggravation, but sometimes it can be a useful accent or other design feature. Especially with burls, I would think that you need to see what the wood offers as you progress.

[Fred Belknap]

Roger I have only done a few burls and I took the bark off with a couple screwdrivers. It was green white oak burl. I wanted to preserve the natural curl under the bark.
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