Hunk of wood

[Glenn Kotnik]

Recently a friend of my wife´s gave me a hunk of wood. He doesn’t know anything about except it was in the way in his workshop. He thought I might try turning it. I’d like to cut it up and turn a few bowls out of it but I can’t decide where to cut it. The one external face has bark on it and is a big hump so I think it must be a Burl. I don’t recognize the bark but it could be maple. There are numerous insect galleries under the bark but the bark doesn’t look like ash. I labeled the external face E and did some photos. One face is flat and has flame figure and I labeled this A, it is 13” at the base. The B face has a void in it and is irregular. The D face has a shallow chainsaw cut in it. I don’t see a pith anywhere. The widest dimension is 13”. I’d appreciate any help I can get identifying the species and deciding how best to cut it to get pieces to turn bowls from.
Thanks

[Mark Greenbaum]

I have only cut one small burl, but I think the third picture should be the inside of ONE bowl. The curved face should be the outside and bottom of a bowl. Burlers should pipe in and correct me if I am wrong.

[Glenn Kotnik]

Yes, I had thought of turning one big bowl out of it. I could probably get one bowl about 10-11” día. My concern is that a lot of interesting figure will be turned away. I thought if I could get three 5” bowls I might preserve more figure, but I’ve never cut into a burl before, if this really is a Burl which I’m not completely convinced of.

[Peter Blair]

I'm certainly not an expert as I struggle myself if I have a burl to utilize but if you don't want to turn away the figure you could core it or if that is not an option how about 3 or 4 shallow bowls?

[David Delo]

I'd probably try to flatten out the bottom side as shown in pic #2 and either round the largest bowl blank possible on the bandsaw or find the balance point between centers to find out what condition the wood is in. If it's a solid piece of timber, I'd finish shaping it and core it out to get multiple pieces. If you don't have a coring rig, find a buddy or someone from a nearby club to help you core it. Kind of looks like ambrosia maple to me with the holes and streaking.......but kind of hard to ID from a picture.

[Glenn Kotnik]

I keep looking for a good excuse to buy a coring system and this may be it. Sounds like I should flatten one side on my bandsaw, put on a face plate and turn it round, then see if the inside is solid enough and big enough to core it. If it turns out to be ambrosia maple burl it could be pretty nice and worth getting the most out of. My first thought was to cut into smaller pieces for turning but I guess you can’t beat coring for getting the most mileage out of a piece of wood.

[David Delo]

Glenn,

Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to pour water on your enthusiasm but before you go out and buy a coring rig just for this chunk of wood, take a step back and take a breath. If you put this on a faceplate that's okay but then your stuck with whatever orientation you picked. If you put it between centers, you can alter things better in case maybe you begin to see one side of the bowl blank not being even or maybe there's a portion that has some nice grain patterns you want in a different location. If this timber is a burl, that great but you never know what underneath the surface until you put a gouge to it. Could be blue ribbon territory or it could be full of bark inclusions, voids, rotten wood or an ant colony. Just saying, get it to somewhat of a bowl blank shape with a tenon on it and then make a decision. Even if it's a solid piece and as good as your hoping for I'd practice coring on a couple easy pieces before tackling your burl or highly figured piece. Just my opinion. Good luck.

[John Keeton]

My guess is silver maple with some ambrosia coloration. It is full of insect holes and is showing signs of decay. While it may have some nice character and possibly some interesting figure, I wouldn’t classify it as a burl from what I see.

silver maple often has figure in it and often burls. It is possible the original tree contained some nice wood.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I would agree with how you would position the bowl to be turned out of it, (for what I see with your pictures shown).

As for the wood, I do believe it might be Yellow Birch looking at the bark and in what I have seen Yellow Birch bark looks like.

Also it could very well be burl, if you have seen how Yellow Birch burls look and grow, you have to get a very smooth surface and finish on it to have the grain show in a finished piece.

Now the why I believe it is Birch,if you look at the picture you can see the top layer of the bark lifting away and the thick under layer of the bark, real typical for Birch, and for the size of the piece I think it is larger than de typical white or paper Birch grows, having no pith in in it or being close to it as the growth rings show.

bark.jpg

In this picture it shows the older bark that does break up like that in Yellow Birch, almost looking like black Cherry plus the newer piece of bark that very well could be growing over an injured part of the tree.
old & new bark.jpg

Here a picture of the Bark of a large White Birch bark that shows the thin outside bark that is quite different from the inside bark and where that and the wood can rot totally rot away while the outside bark stays like new.
Birch Bark.jpg

[Glenn Kotnik]

I wasn’t thinking of buying a coring system just for this piece, I’ve been thinking about getting one for a few years, I just need something to push me over the edge. But this hunk of wood may not be worth it as David said. As far as the species, we have a lot of silver maple around here and all of the medium and large trees have bark that comes off in strips and this bark doesn’t look at all like it. Birch I don’t know much about so it’s a possibility. I’ll put it between centers and start turning today. I’ll post a few photos and see what’s under the surface.
Thanks for the replys everyone.

[John K Jordan]

I wasn’t thinking of buying a coring system just for this piece, I’ve been thinking about getting one for a few years, I just need something to push me over the edge. But this hunk of wood may not be worth it as David said. As far as the species, we have a lot of silver maple around here and all of the medium and large trees have bark that comes off in strips and this bark doesn’t look at all like it. Birch I don’t know much about so it’s a possibility. I’ll put it between centers and start turning today. I’ll post a few photos and see what’s under the surface.
Thanks for the replys everyone.

It could be one of the other maples. I have old chunks of red maple that look like that too. But it could be any of dozens of species. If it is important to you, cut off and save a small piece for closer examination. Using a magnifying lens to look at end grain of even a 1/2" piece shaved with a single-edged razor blade might give a clue, or at least eliminate some guesses.

JKJ

[Leo Van Der Loo]

It could be one of the other maples. I have old chunks of red maple that look like that too. But it could be any of dozens of species. If it is important to you, cut off and save a small piece for closer examination. Using a magnifying lens to look at end grain of even a 1/2" piece shaved with a single-edged razor blade might give a clue, or at least eliminate some guesses.

JKJ

Red Maple that looks like it ? really, or just discrediting what I show ???, could be any of dozens of species ????? .

Here are a couple of Maple species bark, Silver Maple and Red Maple first.

Siver Maple tree bark.jpg Red Maple log.jpg

Then Norway Maple bark and Yellow birch (net picture) where you can tell the broken up thin top layer of the bark.

Norway Maple.jpg yellow-birch-betula-alleghaniensis-.jpg

As for the bark on Red Maple you can see what it looks like on the end and also when still not very old (about 50 years, here by my house),

The bark is nowhere like the OP’s shown bark, I assume we can see that ??
Red Maple wood & bark.jpg Birch bark.jpg

[Glenn Kotnik]

It’s a hemispheric hunk of wood but it’s not a burl. I rounded the corners on the bandsaw then put it on the lathe. After just a couple of minutes of turning I stopped it to check how it was holding up. I noticed a long crack snaking around the inner end and between the rings. This looks like ring shake to me and I’ve had some big projectiles wizzing around the workshop in the past due to ring shake. I didn’t think it was worth the risk to keep turning. I may cut it into smaller pieces and see how they turn. The wood has interesting figure and probably came from a part of the tree that had been damaged and healed in a gnarled sort of way. It has a lot of insect holes and has experienced a dry sort of decay. I’ve found this kind of wood can make very nice turnings that resemble very old Native American pottery.
Darn now I need to find another excuse to buy a coring system.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Too bad there is not a safe way for you to turn it.

The figure that is showing is like what I found in theYellow Birch burls I turned, I have a picture, but was taken with a film camera and it is not sharp, but you still can see the what I call chatoyance in the wood after it was finished.

Sorry the best I can do to show the way Yellow Birches that I have seen and turned have the burl growth, it was often discarted and cut out by the logger as the wild grain was not wanted for making lumber.

The reflection does show well in your second picture.

This was turned before I had a digital camera, quite a few years ago.

Yellow Birch burl bowl.jpg

This is the picture from a chunk I still have, of some Yellow Birch burl wood, not showing much but typical of how it grows.

Yellow Birch burl.jpg

[Thomas Canfield]

I would take the piece as shown in photo 2 and go drill press, shim up to get the edges somewhat level, and use my 3-1/8" Forstner bit to drill a flat spot in center of natural edge for a 3" faceplate. Then use bandsaw to cut off some of the excess outside using a cardboard template in center, mount faceplate and then turn using live center to rough out the outside and for a tenon for #3 or #4 jaws. Piece of cake. Bet I have done over 100 in similar method and many a lot larger chunk of wood. Wood too big for drill press has to be drilled on floor using 1/2" drill with extra hand grip and is more exciting. The flat of Forstner bit determines the top orientation of bowl. This method also works for sections longer than wide and produces long oval bowl.