Best way to cut up a burl

[Chris Railey]

Its no secret that I am addicted to burls. I have a couple of cherry burls coming so I am wondering what is the best way to cut a burl? I told the guy to cross cut the log above the burl and below the burl and bring me the whole thing and I will figure out how to cut it. So as a log sits should I rip cut the thing or cross cut it for handle wood? Or does it matter?

 

[BossDog]

Its no secret that I am addicted to burls. I have a couple of cherry burls coming so I am wondering what is the best way to cut a burl? I told the guy to cross cut the log above the burl and below the burl and bring me the whole thing and I will figure out how to cut it. So as a log sits should I rip cut the thing or cross cut it for handle wood? Or does it matter?

I’ve cut several and they still confuse me. Waste is easily 50%.
depending on the wood type is how to approach it. When I want birdseyes and rings I make sure to identify which way the grain is running and cut across it. This is usually good with black ash and box elder, both types of maple.
if I have curly maple, I am trying to rip it along the grain.
Cherry, to me, looks best cut half way between full grain and Birdseye unless I see a bunch of rings and eyes and then I will go for that.

I normally cut a big burl right in half to see what is going on and then decide which way the next few cuts need to be.
I will cut these into 1.75” -2” thick slabs, wax them up and stick them on the shelf for a year.

 

[BossDog]

Here are some we Will be working on soon

we got these pieces cut already. You should be able to see the wax coating which helps slow the drying down. If these dry too fast, they check to the point of being worthless.


big maple burl


and here is cherry I’m excited about.

 

[Chris Railey]

I normally cut a big burl right in half to see what is going on and then decide which way the next few cuts need to be.
I will cut these into 1.75” -2” thick slabs, wax them up and stick them on the shelf for a year.

That is a plan right there. I am lucky enough to have a good friend with a sawmill so cut and shelf is the plan. Do you just melt candle wax and coat the ends or do you dip the whole piece?

 

[billyO]

I will cut these into 1.75” -2” thick slabs

That's what I did when I heated with wood and harvested...

On a related note, if possible, try to make friends with someone who works for a tree removal company. 2 doors down from me is a young guy who works for one such company, and ~3 weeks ago I noticed he had a few 4 foot sections of a tree with basketball sized burls all over. I was going to leave him a note asking if he wanted to sell them, but didn't get around to it before leaving town for a couple weeks. I ran into him 10 minutes ago, and asked what he does/did with them and he said they go to the pulp mill. There were there just because it was a late job and didn't have time to take them to the mill, so he left them there until he got to it. And I thought he already had someone taking them from him. He now knows to leave these type of chunks in front of our place. I offered to pay him, but it's going to save him some work, so perhaps I'll just make him a knife.

 

[billyO]

you only need to coat the ends

 

[Shieldon Knives]

Electric motor saw ？

 

[Chris Railey]

That's what I did when I heated with wood and harvested...

On a related note, if possible, try to make friends with someone who works for a tree removal company. 2 doors down from me is a young guy who works for one such company, and ~3 weeks ago I noticed he had a few 4 foot sections of a tree with basketball sized burls all over. I was going to leave him a note asking if he wanted to sell them, but didn't get around to it before leaving town for a couple weeks. I ran into him 10 minutes ago, and asked what he does/did with them and he said they go to the pulp mill. There were there just because it was a late job and didn't have time to take them to the mill, so he left them there until he got to it. And I thought he already had someone taking them from him. He now knows to leave these type of chunks in front of our place. I offered to pay him, but it's going to save him some work, so perhaps I'll just make him a knife.

Now that is a score. My same friend with the sawmill now knows to save me the burls. He just saws for lumber.

 

[BossDog]

That is a plan right there. I am lucky enough to have a good friend with a sawmill so cut and shelf is the plan. Do you just melt candle wax and coat the ends or do you dip the whole piece?

The wax is a commercial wood sealer wax. There are several brands, look for lumber cutting supplies or wood turners use this stuff all the time also.

 

[billyO]

I've heard/read that a good coat of latex paint will work too. All we're trying to do is slow down the drying process to minimize checking/cracking/warping.
When I lived up in the wet side of WA, I didn't even do this, but having (at the time) access to plenty of trees/wood I wasn't worried about this because pieces that cracked/checked too much merely went into the heating/cooking fuel pile,

 

[Chris Railey]

I've heard/read that a good coat of latex paint will work too. All we're trying to do is slow down the drying process to minimize checking/cracking/warping.
When I lived up in the wet side of WA, I didn't even do this, but having (at the time) access to plenty of trees/wood I wasn't worried about this because pieces that cracked/checked too much merely went into the heating/cooking fuel pile,

We have used paint on whole logs to help with checking back when I made longbows, so I assume it would work too.

 

[D-Yager]

Seems like every burl I cut up is different but I generally do this. If the rounded burl is like an orange start by cutting off slices parallel to each other. For scales I cut those slices about 2” thick so you end up with progressively larger slabs, each 2” thick. This is chainsaw work. Do half the burl this way and Wax the heck out of those guys on all surfaces. Anchor Seal is a good product for this cause you can see what’s going on, as opposed to paint. Save the other half for further revelations.

When ready throw one of these slabs on the bandsaw and draw a line 6” long just in from the bark. Cut that off, check the figure and Keep going if good, cutting deeper into the burl parallel to your first cut until the figure lessens. The figure often shows best on pieces cut like this which are made pretty parallel to the bark all the way around the perimeter.

 

[Chris Railey]

I figured this would be complicated simply because of the random grain. What do do you guys think about this plan. I know me and I favor blocks so I plan to cut big blocks 2 inches thick and as long/wide as I can. If I cross-cut 2 inch thick cookies out of the burl and then process those into blocks I hope to be OK either way. If the good grain is on the edge I will cut scales that way. If the good grain is on top I will cut it that way once its dry. Is this simply wishful thinking?

 

[D-Yager]

I think you’re good with that plan. When cutting up the cookies start at the outside (bark) edge. Your fresh cuts will typically show the best figure working your way around the cookie.