brandnew turner

[donnie wood]

Hello, I'm new to turning but have been doing woodwork for 30 years. My question is , I will be taking down a maple tree that has burls all over it. What do I need to do to it after it hits the ground to keep from checking cracking i.e. do I have to split it in have, cover it up , or just let it lay in the log.

Thanks for any help D Wood

[Mark Pruitt]

Donnie, welcome!

You want to cut the logs down the center to eliminate the pith. Cracks will radiate from the pith, so you can prevent that by eliminating the pith.

Also, seal the end grain on that maple. You can use Anchorseal, or just use latex paint. If you seal the end grain, that should help prevent other cracks.

Have fun with that maple! It's fun wood to turn IMO.

Mark

[Ken Grunke]

donnie--it's hard to say without looking at what you have, so if I were you I'd seek out a fairly experienced woodturner and ask for advice and possibly even some lessons in exchange for some of the burl wood. Most turners go ga-ga over maple burl if it's bigleaf maple or sugar maple, also known as rock maple. These are the hard maples that get a good price on the market.
Burl wood is less likely to split and crack compared to plain wood in chunk form so you may want to just cut it down to manageable chunks and tuck it away in a cool, dry and dark place. But keep an eye on it and if it wants to start cracking, use an end grain sealer like paraffin or what the sawmills and lumberyards use, Anchorseal, an emulsified wax that a lot of turners swear by.

[Andy Hoyt]

Welcome to SMC, Donnie.

If you let us know where you're located you'll be surprised how much advice and offered assistance will surface.

Like Ken said, burl is highly prized, so my hope is that you're just down the road from me.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Welcome to Creek Donnie. Last fall I cut down some ash wood. I left it in log form and painted both end of the log with 2 coats of latex paint. A experienced turner here in town told me to leave each end of log 6" longer than what I needed. So if I need 24" so that I could get say 4 12" bowls I would leave the log 36" total in length. The 6" is waste but if not cracked to bad you can cut some 6" long by 3" square for lidded boxes. If you are going to cut bowl blanks right away make sure you cut the pith out of the middle. I generally cut 1/2" on each side of the pith. Then seal the end grain of the bowl blank either with latex paint or with anchorseal. I didn't have anchorseal when I started so I used latex paint. It works really well if you use 2 coats. Hope this helps.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Welcome to the Creek Donnie!

[Dennis Peacock]

Donnie,

Welcome to the Creek. It is best to seal freshly cut wood as quickly as possible to aid in keeping moisture in the wood and reduce checking/cracking. Latex paint works fairly well but won't hold up very long. Anchorseal works very well and will last until you're ready to turn the piece. Maple is a nice wood to turn and is one of my favorites to turn.