Bob Noles
01-15-2006, 8:08 PM
Some days just don't go as planned and today was one of them. I had every intention of going to the shop to make a first attempt at turning something that might resemble a bowl. When I opened the door, I spotted a small piece of cherry burl still laying on my workbench that I dug out of my box of samples from John Hart a while back and had set aside. It was a fine piece of wood and I was waiting until I gained enough experience to try to make a pen from it and do it justice. Well, it just kept sitting there haunting me. Today I just did not have the focus I felt I needed to learn something that I had not tried before (like a bowl) so my popcorn will have to wait Carole. :rolleyes:
I picked up that piece of burl and started looking it over. Funny thing dawned on me in so doing.... I had never really looked at a burl up close and personal like this before, as a matter of fact, this may be the first time I have ever even touched a burl (we don't use them in flat work upstairs). ;) That thing just kept begging me to take it on today, but I just kept putting it back down being a little intimadated by it still. Finally I got up the nerve and grabbed a pen blank from my stock and began measuring and marking on the burl. After getting it about the same size as one of my store bought blanks. I took it over to the band saw to carefully cut my stock to make a pen blank. When I began pushing that little piece of burl thru the blade, I though something in my shop was burning, but soon realized it was just the burl offering strong resistance to the cut. Man is that ever some hard stuff! :eek: I finally got 2 pieces sized up and drilled out with a 7mm bit in the drill press and proceeded with epoxy gluing the tubes in the burl.
Upon returning to the shop after some drying time, I readied the lathe and touched up the gouge and skew on the grinder and mounted the blanks on the mandril as I had done over a dozen times before, thinking this was going to be just another pen blank to turn. Did I mention that this burl is some hard stuff? :eek: My gouge just wanted to bounce off the blanks :mad: I ran over and grabbed my book and checked to see if I was doing something wrong or holding the tool improperly... nope... everything was just as I had done over a dozen times before. Me and that burl went round and round (yes literally) and up and down all over the place. What a wild ride, but I finally made it round after the fight of my life with a piece of wood! Once round, the skew went a little better, but the cuts were sure slow and laborous. Yep... that burl is some hard stuff alright. (either that or John Hart is having some fun with me :) )
Oh well.... to make a long story short.... here is the burl in it's finshed stage. What do ya think of a newbies first try on a burl?
I picked up that piece of burl and started looking it over. Funny thing dawned on me in so doing.... I had never really looked at a burl up close and personal like this before, as a matter of fact, this may be the first time I have ever even touched a burl (we don't use them in flat work upstairs). ;) That thing just kept begging me to take it on today, but I just kept putting it back down being a little intimadated by it still. Finally I got up the nerve and grabbed a pen blank from my stock and began measuring and marking on the burl. After getting it about the same size as one of my store bought blanks. I took it over to the band saw to carefully cut my stock to make a pen blank. When I began pushing that little piece of burl thru the blade, I though something in my shop was burning, but soon realized it was just the burl offering strong resistance to the cut. Man is that ever some hard stuff! :eek: I finally got 2 pieces sized up and drilled out with a 7mm bit in the drill press and proceeded with epoxy gluing the tubes in the burl.
Upon returning to the shop after some drying time, I readied the lathe and touched up the gouge and skew on the grinder and mounted the blanks on the mandril as I had done over a dozen times before, thinking this was going to be just another pen blank to turn. Did I mention that this burl is some hard stuff? :eek: My gouge just wanted to bounce off the blanks :mad: I ran over and grabbed my book and checked to see if I was doing something wrong or holding the tool improperly... nope... everything was just as I had done over a dozen times before. Me and that burl went round and round (yes literally) and up and down all over the place. What a wild ride, but I finally made it round after the fight of my life with a piece of wood! Once round, the skew went a little better, but the cuts were sure slow and laborous. Yep... that burl is some hard stuff alright. (either that or John Hart is having some fun with me :) )
Oh well.... to make a long story short.... here is the burl in it's finshed stage. What do ya think of a newbies first try on a burl?