Am I handling these burls properly?

[dirk martin]

I have the opportunity to buy a few burls from a local person.
Some are maple, some red oak, most unknown species.
They range in size from a large softball, to a soccer ball.
I have a full compliment of shop tools.
Moisture content, unknown.

My plan is to slice them into bookmatched knife scales / gun grips.
Maybe a few as pen blanks or duck calls blanks.

Then bring them indoors, to dry them, or slowly dry them in a toaster oven.

After dry, I will stabilize them with cactus juice.

Those I don't use, I will probably sell.

Does it sound like I'm handling them right?

[johnny means]

Drying them slowly in toaster oven?

[dirk martin]

Yes....low, dry heat.

[johnny means]

If the toaster oven is on at all it wouldn't be considered slow.

[John K Jordan]

I like to cut burls at least in half but usually further into turning blanks, seal all cut sides with AnchorSeal, and put on the shelf to air dry for months or years (depending on the size.) If you weigh each piece periodically you can tell when it is dry or nearly dry. A soccer-sized burl left uncut will not dry in a reasonable time. I would not use heat unless perhaps following the kiln drying schedules for the species, even then, I wonder if they apply to burls. The microwave drying method might work well - try it on a sample piece first.

If making thin knife scales, grips, pen blanks and other small things I would definitely cut them into useful sized blanks, wax, and air dry. Small blanks dry quickly, a little longer when waxed. Thin knife scales can dry very quickly but may warp and be useless. Some burls will warp significantly while drying, some won't, so to be on the safe side you might want to cut blanks bigger than you need. I have also cut thin boards and made mini stickered stacks and weighted them to minimized warping.

The last small red oak I cut into pen blanks was nearly a waste of time - more than half of the blanks warped so much they couldn't be used.

If you haven't messed with burls before be advised that some are great and some are worthless inside. Many have a layer of highly figured wood around the outside and unfigured wood in the middle. Some blobs on the sides of trees are not burls at all but are where the tree grew over a dead limb. Almost need to cut into a burl to see but sometimes you can tell from the surface exposed where it was cut from the tree.

I cut up a nice-sized (maybe 14") white oak burl recently which looked great on the outside. Unfortunately the inside had a lot of rot, voids, and bark inclusions. All I got from it was three box-sized blanks and several smaller blanks. Hardly worth the effort. On the other hand, some are fantastic


I don't think I'd pay a nickle for an uncut softball-sized burl.

JKJ


I have the opportunity to buy a few burls from a local person.
Some are maple, some red oak, most unknown species.
They range in size from a large softball, to a soccer ball.
I have a full compliment of shop tools.
Moisture content, unknown.

My plan is to slice them into bookmatched knife scales / gun grips.
Maybe a few as pen blanks or duck calls blanks.

Then bring them indoors, to dry them, or slowly dry them in a toaster oven.

After dry, I will stabilize them with cactus juice.

Those I don't use, I will probably sell.

Does it sound like I'm handling them right?