Burls...I am Lost

[Larry Frank]

I have just started turning and am making some screw driver handles. They are out of domestic hardwood.

But...I would like to turn one or two out of a highly figured wood and burl. I need to find some blanks 1-1/2" square and about 6" long. I have gone to several sites that sell burl blanks but get lost. I have no idea what species I should get or what would work.

Can someone provide a suggestion for a low cost burl blank? Thanks

[John Keeton]

Low cost and burl don't typically occur in the same sentence.;) I would probably stick to hardwood for tool handles - maple, ash, oak or hickory. Maple burl more available, but much of it is soft maple. Birdseye and curly maple in hard maple would make striking handles. Some of the exotics are beautiful and durable, but not "low cost."

[Steve Schlumpf]

John speaks from experience - this stuff ain't cheap. Here is a link to one place that offers exotics and burls in the sizes you are asking about: Bell Forest Products (http://www.bellforestproducts.com/)

[Bruce Page]

I used to do business with a machine shop that had this sign in their front office:

[John K Jordan]

I have just started turning and am making some screw driver handles. They are out of domestic hardwood.

But...I would like to turn one or two out of a highly figured wood and burl. I need to find some blanks 1-1/2" square and about 6" long. I have gone to several sites that sell burl blanks but get lost. I have no idea what species I should get or what would work.

Can someone provide a suggestion for a low cost burl blank? Thanks

Larry,

You can get free or very cheap burls if you look hard enough. Some sawmills throw them away or save them to give to woodturners. Tree cutting companies might save them for you or you might browse through an urban tree dump. A landowner with a lot of woods might let you cut one. If you get a green burl you will have to cut it up and dry the wood first.

Nearly any wood will work for screwdriver handles and the variety is infinite. I would stay away from the softer woods such as buckeye burl, but hardwoods like walnut, cherry, and oak are good and the burls can look spectacular. Hard maple is excellent. Some maple is highly figured and the chatoyance adds another dimension. Spalted wood can look great too.

You can get some great looking turnings from woods that naturally have striking figure even if they are not burled or "figured". Some I like to use for things are osage orange, zebra wood, leopard wood, cocobolo, tulipwood, black and white ebony, bocote, and kingwood. I like to make things like these little bells with interesting-looking wood. (These are the bells only that will have handles and clappers added to make handbell Christmas ornaments. Sorry, they are not positioned to show the color and figure particularly well.)

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Another thing to consider is adding texture which might look great on screwdriver handles. With texturing you can "turn" otherwise bland (boring!) and cheaper wood into something special. I like to use a texture tool on handles for looks and to give a little something to grip. Here are some lathe tool handles I made with textures and some things with carved textures, I did the last two with a little carbide burr on a Dremel:

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The possibilities are endless.

If you drive through East TN one day stop in and I'll give you a few pieces of of burl and figured wood to turn. Also, if there is a wood dealer in your area you can go and browse. (Jefferies Woodworks near here is a prime example but bring a pile of money!) There are usually wood dealers at the turning symposiums that will have exactly what you can use. Try to get to a place where Big Monk Lumber is set up.

JKJ

[William C Rogers]

The above answers are correct. i think the least expensive burl would be box elder. You can find it stabilized and dyed different colors. Figured wood could be bocote or marble wood. Any of the exotic wood burls are going to be expensive. Buckeye Burl is nice, but somewhat expensive.

[John Grace]

Are you 'locked-in' to burl or have you considered some other hard woods or foreign exotics? Check out the web site link below...while any wood bought on-line will be exponentially more andmore expensive as shipping weight increases...what you're looking for is actually relatively small and therefore not cost prohibitive. To that end, the goal you're describing 'screams' Cocobolo to me...it's a Mexican exotic and is rock hard and therefore a reasonable choice for a handle and would give the end-user an exotic looking tool they'd be afraid to actually use. Be careful, however, in that Cocobolo and other exotics can cause some people respiratory issues. Good luck and send pictures of your final work, thanks. John

http://www.exoticwoodsusa.com/order_cocobolo.htm

[Larry Frank]

OK.. change low cost to reasonable. What species of wood burl is the most reasonable cost? I know it will not be cheap but looking for a burl and a highly figured piece of something. Problem is that I have almost no familiarity for costs and species and looking for suggestions.

[John K Jordan]

OK.. change low cost to reasonable. What species of wood burl is the most reasonable cost? I know it will not be cheap but looking for a burl and a highly figured piece of something. Problem is that I have almost no familiarity for costs and species and looking for suggestions.

Reasonable cost? I don't think it is that simple. The cost is widely variable depending on the place you live and circumstance and person holding the burl. From my experience it is impossible to generalize. I've bought burls for top dollar, bought some cheap, traded other wood for them, and have had a bunch given to me for free.

In some places, like around here, cherry burls are fairly common. I have at least six growing on my property, I have some drying on the racks, and have some big chunks friends have given me. On the other end of the scale I have some pieces of exotic burls that were relatively expensive, one, because they had to be imported, and two, because I bought them from a dealer. For an idea of the cost of buying burl from a dealer do an online search - I haven't looked for years but in the past I've seen sites that had a picture of every individual chunk of wood along with a price.

I like to find it for free! Once a guy gave me some huge slabs of english walnut that came from California that had a lot of burl, probably cut 50 years ago - these were over 3' in diameter and 3-6" thick! I've been using chunks for years, for things like this:

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I also trade a LOT of wood with other woodturners, from all over this country and others. This is a load of burls I moved from one storage building to my new shop lots of them were trades. I think I traded for the big maple burl in the second picture. It was so long ago I even forgot I had it it until I started moving the wood!

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Also, I mentioned looking through a wood dump. Once you know what to look for you can usually spot figured wood by looking at the bark. I was splitting firewood from a downed tree when I noticed a chunk of white oak that looked like it might be figured. Cut it open on the bandsaw and this bowl jumped out at me. :-)

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From the looks of the bark I have on my property, of all things, a highly figured yellow poplar tree over 2' in diameter. I've never seen a figured poplar tree. The whole trunk on this one for at least 50' up looks like one big burl to me. (The figure is probably only a few inches thick but you never know.) I don't cut my trees for the wood but if that one ever comes down I may have truckloads of figured poplar to give away. :-)

JKJ

[John Keeton]

Steve's source is a good one. Not the cheapest, but good folks and good wood. Here is a link to some 1.5" Birdseye maple.
http://www.bellforestproducts.com/birdseye-maple/wood-blanks/

Big Monk Lumber is also a good source for exotics. Do some searching - there are numerous sources.

[Tom Albrecht]

Larry,

You can get free or very cheap burls if you look hard enough. Some sawmills throw them away or save them to give to woodturners. Tree cutting companies might save them for you or you might browse through an urban tree dump. A landowner with a lot of woods might let you cut one. If you get a green burl you will have to cut it up and dry the wood first.
JKJ

Wow John, I'd love to find a spot where burls are free! I make regular "burl hunts" in Wisconsin Amish Mill territory, and all of these mostly tiny operations tell me that I am one of three regular "hunters" that ask them to save burls that they now sell.

[John K Jordan]

Wow John, I'd love to find a spot where burls are free! I make regular "burl hunts" in Wisconsin Amish Mill territory, and all of these mostly tiny operations tell me that I am one of three regular "hunters" that ask them to save burls that they now sell.

I have my own sawmill but before I got it I frequented a local sawyer who usually had some "cankers" in a corner of his building for give-away. He said people with lathes like them. (!) I told he he could sell them but he didn't want to mess with them. I got one but some others were way too big for me.

I've spotted maybe 5 burls growing on my property that I keep an eye on in case a tree comes down. Some are sassafras and those trees died so I'll cut those. (I never saw a sassafras burl) The others are cherry. They get bigger every year.

I found another source of burled wood in the big "buttresses" that surround the base of some oak trees here. One that came down was almost all burl. Another broke off about 15' up in a storm - I need to slice into it. There are more here, mostly on huge oak trees. I suspect something in the soil causes this.

Have you tried asking farmers and landowners if they've seen any on their property? Some will let you hunt and some don't care if you cut them. Once when I asked they pointed to one one not 50' from the road. You could carry something you made and offer to make something special for them if you can find the right wood.

JKJ

[Paul Crofton]

I notice you are from Indiana. There are a ton of sawmills especially in the southern half. I have a couple close by that I frequent and a box of donuts goes a long way. I find some very cool domestics.
As for the handle I'm partial to hard maple and beech. For a small handle you could pick up a piece of burl or figured and dry it in the microwave..
The exotics are usually to pricey if you looking at figure or burl.