Can I turn this wood? (?White oak burl?)

[Rob Price]

A buddy gave me a hunk of this wood. He told me it was a burl from a white oak tree felled by a local tree guy. It was an oddly shaped piece, with a triangular edge on it. It's too narrow to turn a bowl from (which is why he didn't want it). But it looks like I can get two 8-10" blanks 3" square from it, which would make my salt and pepper mills that I just bought from CSU. I trimmed off the triangle area and made some 1" square blanks from it, thinking I may turn a few pens for practice on it. using a very sharp versachisel I was able to get a smooth finish on the wood with very little tear out, but there are lots of voids in there as well. I wet it with mineral spirits to get an idea of what it would look like.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-R3wCL2bj4UU/TvtkOpnGxjI/AAAAAAAABgo/oEvXE37j3kE/s800/IMG_0762.JPG

I'm thinking it would be better stabilized in some way. This is my first attempt at turning a burl, so use little words and speak slowly please. This company will do it for $10 for 4 pen blanks: http://rrpwhite.com/wood-stabilizing/

I've read about people using CA glue. I have some thick CA glue I could use. I'm guessing you just build it up a layer at a time.

What about just soaking it in poly (or danish oil or some other finish) and then letting it dry?

I want to use a technique that would translate to the larger 3" blanks, I think CA glue would be too pricey, it would be cheaper to ship them off to the above company.

The wood seems very light, ie not very dense. Is it worth turning at all or will it just blow up on me?

Thanks in advance.

[Steve Vaughan]

This is my first attempt at turning a burl, so use little words and speak slowly please.

Ok, here's goes. To answer your question with little words and slowly - N-O.:eek: Y-o-u s-h-o-u-l-d s-e-n-d t-h-e-m t-o m-e!:p;):D

Seriously, I don't think you'll have any problem at all! That's some bee-utiful wood there.

[Jon Prouty]

A large bottle of very thin CA from your woodworking house would be the ticket on this. You can keep soaking as you turn it down to size and end up with a cheap stabilized product. Keep it saturated and hit it with activator and you are good to go. Similar to what the pen guys do... just a bit bigger. Sending them out for stabilization may end up costing you a fortune as places that do pen blanks may be limited in size (container, pressure pot, etc).

Beautiful wood...

JP

[Rob Price]

Here's the rest of the chunk:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-YqmAYjKV8u8/Tvtwp25dNWI/AAAAAAAABg0/5R0c1GYKgS8/s800/photo.JPG

[Dick Wilson]

Rob, I think this is a not so suttle gloat feining confusion as to what to do with this wood:(:(:p. Looks to me like you have a game plan: pepper mills for the first pieces or very nice finials, and beautiful bowls or winged bowls for the pieces in the second pictures. Look forward to seeing what the finished work looks like.

[Jamie Donaldson]

Turn it! When I find wood too punky for clean cutting I saturate it with lacquer, thinned with a bit(maybe 5~10%?) of acetone to stabilize for the last few cuts. That usually yields a very clean cut surface with few voids and tearout, and is my sealer for a lacquer finish as well.

[David E Keller]

Yes please! Gorgeous stuff! I'd pass on the stabilizing unless you think it's really punky... It won't do anything for voids anyway. In addition to the suggestions above, shellac works well as a temporary stabilizer for finishing cuts.

As you know, the wood needs to be pretty dry for mills.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I hate burl! LOL... Maybe an offset winged bowl or as stated some pepper grinders...or pen blanks.....or bottle stoppers.....or animal calls.........

[Rob Price]

I promise, it's not a gloat. I don't want to mess up such pretty wood. It just seems like it would want to be brittle. I can't wait to get on it, I'm waiting for my pen kits to arrive from CSU. I figure I'll start on a pen or two first and then move onto the bigger chunks for the grinders. It's plenty dry. I had planned on using dark and light accents to differentiate between salt and pepper, but with these two blanks basically bookmatched, I don't want to mess with that. I'll have to use different shapes for salt and pepper.

I can't wait.

Okay, now this is a gloat: I dropped by my buddy's shop tonight (I should call him my dealer, he got me hooked on turning) and he gave me a 12"ish by 6" ish log of mesquite to add to the project pile... hmmm, what to do with that???

[Rob Price]

Okay, another question on these blanks (I know I've been posting a bunch of Q's lately, sorry for being a noob).

By the time I got the bark cut off, I'm left with blanks that are a little under 3" square and 7 inches long. I plan on using the crush grind mechanism, and I was hoping for a little taller peppermill, in the 8-10" range. Also, the buddy who gave me the wood didn't think the wood would be strong enough to work as a pepper mill once I hollowed it out. After cutting the bark and everything off, the blanks have a good heft to them, so I'm gonna try it anyways.

I was thinking one way to get a little more length, and maybe add some stability to the bottom would be to put a 1/2 rim of walnut around the bottom of the pepper, and some hard maple on the bottom of the salt grinder. But would that be end grain to end grain? (with the burls I'm not sure if it's really end grain) or probably use long grain on the walnut glued to the end grain of the oak burl, or just leave it alone and stick with 7" pepper mills.

[Dennis Ford]

I don't think you will have problems gluing to the burl if both the burl and other wood are dry.

[Don Alexander]

thin Ca glue is your friend ............ makes turning even very brittle wood without breaking it up pretty easy ....... i apply it till it won't soak up anymore (this works best on pen blanks, but i have used it on small bowls as well)

clear Danish Oil works pretty well on semi punky wood as well i just keep putting it on till it won't absorb any more then let it dry , rinse and repeat as needed

[Jamie Donaldson]

Turn the bases of the grinders from the same wood, then use maple or some light wood for the salt top, and dye darker wood for the pepper top-2 problems solved!