Yellow birch burl

[cal thelen]

Hello everyone. need some input on this burl. it is about 14" in diameter and about 16 inches tall. how would you go about cutting into blanks. would like to get a bowl and maybe a couple small hollow forms from it. any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks


burl.jpg

[John Keeton]

Does the trunk of the tree/limb go thru the burl, i.e., does the burl surround the trunk? If so, I doubt there is much figure in the middle. I would be inclined to cut it in half lengthwise and use half for a bowl with the bark side being the outside of the bowl. Divide the other half in half and orient the hollow forms with the bark side on the top of the form as that is where most of the figure will be.

[Thomas Canfield]

I picked up a section of Mesquite limb/truck about 3" diameter that had had 2 Misteltoe burls about 7" diameter and a foot long. I had seen earlier where someone cut disks from the burl section and made little natural edge bowl/saucers. I cut about 1-1/2" thick and added waste blocks to conserve the burl, and made some nice pieces. You might try cutting a disk and see how the burl grows.

[Bob Bergstrom]

As John says, it appears the burl is surrounding the trunk. These two examples show what happens if the trunk is included and not included in a bowl. The 2nd one has the trunk in the bottom and little burl to show in the bottom. The 1st one was cored from the 2nd and does not include the trunk in the bottom. A shallow bowl that is all burl is better than one with plain wood in the bottom in my opinion. Don't try to use all the wood. Use the pristine wood as much as possible. Quality over quantity. These two are elm burl dyed with medium walnut dye.