Honey Locust Burl?

[Deane Allinson]

How do you tell from the outside if there is any significant burl inside or any burl at all? This piece has a small limb sticking out of a large bulbous area and is about twice the size as the adj trunk/limb. I realize that I can cut it in half but I hesitant to cut into a large piece. Is it better to debark for drying? It's about 8" in dia. and about 2 ft. long. I'm new to turning and used to kiln dried lumber.
Deane

[Steve Schlumpf]

Deane - the problem with burls is you really never know what you have until you cut into it and turn it.

When drying wood - leave the bark on! Make sure you seal all the cut areas of the wood and then store in a cool area. When it comes time that you want to turn a chunk of it - be sure to reseal the freshly cut area and the wood should last for quite a while.

Looking forward to seeing what you turn out of this!

[Mark Burge]

There has to be something cool going on in there! If I were you, I would want to cut a few blanks and rough out a bowl or two out of it. Then I would wrap the wood in newspaper and let it dry for a month or two. But, that's just because I'm impatient and I always want to see inside the log. Let us see what you get with it.

[David E Keller]

I agree with Steve... Burls are like a box of chocolates.

I'd consider getting rid of that checking on the cut surface shown in the last photo before you seal it (if you can). It's gonna take forever to dry if you leave it whole, so the sealing is mostly just to allow for a little delay before doing some green turning. Locust is hard as a rock when dry anyway, so I'd plan to rough out your intended form and dry it for re-turning.... Or turn it to finished form while green and let it warp.

I'm looking forward to seeing what's inside that gnarly piece.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I agree with the others you never know what it will show. I would cut it into blanks and seal. As David said in that form will take forever to dry and probably will check enough to make it unuseable if left to long.