Advice on how to turn a redwood burl

[Richard Cue]

I have been asked to turn a redwood burl which have been sitting in someone workshop for 20yrs.

I am thinking of cutting a slice off and making a platter and then coring the remainder to get two bowls.
However, I have never turned a burl before or cored blanks.
Should I strip the bark off first & or trim the burl with a chainsaw first ?(I have friend whose proficient with a chainsaw).
Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.
Photos are attached.

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Richard

[Len Mullin]

Hello Richard, and welcome to the Creek. I don't have the answer to your question, but, seeing as how this is your first posting I thought I'd welcome you.
Len

[David Delo]

Kind of hard to tell exactly from your pictures but looks like some of the checking is pretty deep. If they do run deep, I personally wouldn't try making a bowl or platter with this chunk. Maybe some more adventurous might try it but not me. Might try slicing/dicing into sizes for boxes, ring holders, pens and other such small items. Just my opinion.

[Neal DaMommio]

Richard I do not have enough experience in coring to make a recommendation other than I would be concerned about the process. Maybe someone with more knowledge will chime in. Not so sure about the plate either but I would not be able to walk away from this burl. I certainly am not telling you to do so but if it was me I would chuck it up and with a bottle of CA at my side give it a shot. I would glue every crack or area of punky wood before I ever turned the lathe on and after every pass or two I would re-glue always insuring I was working with as sound a product as possible and if it got to a point that I couldn't make it sound I would stop. Maybe. Probably. Hopefully.

Good luck and be careful.

Neal

[Paul Williams]

I don't have a lot of experience with burls and none this size so take this as just an opinion. It appears that you have drawn a circle on the first photo about at the 15.75 mark on your tape. That is the rim of the bowl that I would turn. I would cut a 3.5 to 4.5 inch slab. Then cut the round as you have marked it. Get out the CA bottle and fill any cracks and start turning. With the remainder of the burl I would likely cut it up for boxes or smaller items, but it could be a smaller bowl.

[Greg Parrish]

No answer but georgeous piece of wood. Can't wait to see the end result.

[Bob Bergstrom]

I've done a few burls with problems and have used thin super glue in cracks and punkey area, plus 5 minute epoxy mixed with colored line chaulk to fill larger open cracks. Here's a pic of a corded oak burl. The large one on the right had some open cracks running lateral around it. Follow the dark lines most of them are epoxy. Epoxy is more flexible than super glue. Filling took three days of patching and waiting to cure time, but worked well.
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[Dean S Walker]

Richard, I have not ever cored a burl but I have turned lots of it. Sharpen your tools to a keen edge and keep them that way any small void fill with CA even if your going to turn it off. When you find a void or a separation that is large coat all the surface with CA during turning. Do not use a skew, use only gouges, keep them sharp and focus on riding the bevel. Make sure you take light cuts throughout the entire project. If you get a catch it will pull a chunk out so go slow with depth of cut and keep the RPM up. It is more time consuming but there is very few burls as pretty as a redwood burl. The time will be worth it.

good luck
Dean