How to cut this?

[Lee Alkureishi]

Hi all,

have been keeping my eye out for burls from the local tree surgeons and tree fellers, but no luck so far.. So, I broke down and bought me some burl

Found a great place in Wisconsin, with prices much (MUCH) less than what I found online... Came away with this little beauty

It's elm burl, and measures 18" x 20" x 10" - way bigger than my pm90 can handle (currently - I do plan some 4" risers in the near future).

So, my next question is: how should I cut this badboy up? I haven't worked with burl before. I like making hollow forms, but I'm thinking this form might lend itself more to one 12" bowl from the central portion, then some small hollow forms from the outside? Or should I divide it into quarters and make 4 smaller pieces?

All ideas and suggestions most welcome!

Lee

[Ron Crosby]

Wow, you paid $165.00 for that piece???
I didn't realize burl was THAT expensive.

[Lee Alkureishi]

oops, didn't realize I left that visible in the pic - yes, burls can be really expensive. That's why I'm seeking advice before I attack it with a saw

[Joe Kieve]

You had to zoom-in to see the decimal....it was $1.65. Sure it was....

joe

[Curt Fuller]

The hard part of cutting burl or any other wood is deciding what you want to turn from it. There isn't really a good way that doesn't leave you with a lot of small pieces. I have a couple round templates in different sizes (just round pieces of plywood) that I lay on the wood. I arrange and rearrange them until I feel like I'm getting the most out of the wood. Then I trace them onto the wood with a sharpie and start cutting. Remember, even if you're cutting with a chain saw you don't have to cut clear across the wood. So you can be pretty creative with cutting them up. You almost always end up with a bunch of small irregular shaped pieces so I save those for ornaments or other small projects. I don't turn many pens, but you can use a lot of the scraps for pen blanks. Another thing I've started doing is writing on the cut up blanks what I intended to use it for and a few arrows or marks to show the orientation I was thinking of when I cut them. I tend to put the wood on a shelf and by the time I use it I'm wondering what the heck I cut it that way for.

BTW, that looks like a dandy burl. But wood sure is getting pricey for something that grows on trees!