OMG a huge live oak burl!!!

[mmartone]

So Jack picked this up for us yesterday...



 



 

So how do I can I, cut or sell it as is or what? guidance please wood gurus

[woodman58]

Find a local woodturning club and ask what size they would need to turn bowls and other things.

[mesquite buckeye]

Where's the beef?  :(

[drobertson]

There is a few on here that do burl work, one does pool cues and the like, I guess keep it dry and do some searching on the forum, I just cant' remember their names.

[JB Griffin]

Member Qbuilder could prob shed some light on that burl.

[woodjunky]

cut it thin and thick. Then put it in the Oak section of the burl section of your wood hoard...... Thats what I would do

[mmartone]

How thick and how thin and in what direction??

[hunz]

That should be an interesting burl to cut. I think live oak is the densest wood in North America, someone may correct me on that. My biggest concern would be ending up with bowls before someone can turn them!

[LeeB]

Live oak burl is extremely hard and can dull a turning tool in seconds. Hard to dry too. Cracks like crazy.

[backwoods sawyer]

clock blanks 1"
Bowls 3"-4" or even thicker
Position with best face up and keep putting the best face up (not conserned about square)
Busting it down to managable peices would be a good option as well. 

[mmartone]

I was out looking at this and have no idea what direction to cut. Just up and down paralell to the tree/wood grain? Managable chunks for me or the tractor? Its huge.. thats the one thing I do know about it.

[backwoods sawyer]

Managable for the mill ;D

you and the tractor may have to fend for your selves ;D

Lay it out like a log.
If it is to big for the mill make your chainsaw cuts thru the worst wood to make it manageable on the mill. Being hollow taking a flatening cut off the inside can help clean up the undesireable stuff.
You may need a sacrificial board or two to help clamp up the chunks. Think: end tables, clock faces, artsy peices, and Bowl blanks ect.
An 8x18x18 makes a stack of bowls it the turner has a multiple bowl cutting tool, if not it only makes one big bowl and it takes the right lathe to turn it. 3-4x12x12  3-4x8x8 are comon sizes for bowls.
Take a look at the cherry bowl up for auction here. Cracks like that don't alway hold together, but when they do that make an artsy candy bowl. I mill quite a bit of unique wood at 4x4x8 for a local bowl turner that makes wooden travel mugs with a liner but that is a specifily for him.

[jueston]

if you look online you can find blanks of almost any size. bigger blanks bring in more money, but will likely be harder to find the buyer for, things like 2by2 can be used for pepper mills or bottle stoppers, 1by1 or 3/4by3/4 for pen blanks,  if its pretty inside, then every scrap is sellable, but it might  be harder to find a  buyer for this then the average piece of wood.

[mmartone]

Well we cut it tonight into big pieces, it was so long that I had to finish the cut from the other end with my 32" bar. We are going to cut some of the mill, slabs and not sure what to do with the rest yet. Thanks for all your guidance

[GAmillworker]

pics

Please

[5quarter]

Double please...

[blade69001]

Purdy please!!!!!

[Kasba]

I belong to a woodturning guild near me and most members have bigger lathes.  I work quite a bit with burls and I usually start with as many 14" - 15" x 5-6" blocks I can get. I then work in the 12" size and keep going down in size to utilize the what is left in the burl, a good rule of thumb that we use for thickness is a minimum of 1/3 the width of the block or more (ie.12" would be 4"). That is definitely a nice oak burl what was the size of it?