OK...time to cut up the burr elm

[jimi43]

Some of you guys have commented on my lump of burr elm that I have been using as a photo stand for a while.

I was thinking the other day how I would very much like to make some chisel handles...and possibly other tools out of it....

Here it is on its own:

I was wondering if someone had any idea how I would cut this into turning blacks (handle size) to ensure I get the best grain effect and strength....or is this not going to be stable enough for anything other than veneers?

Any help would be most appreciated.

Cheers guys

Jimi

 

[Frank S]

Jimi, that is one beautiful piece of burr,please,please use it for a bowl, I doubt that it will have the strength to be used as chisel handles as each burr is a stress point,you need something like ash or beech which will give good long lasting handles.Hope this helps you to solve the problem.
Frank S.

 

[Tony Spear]

If I had a fabulous piece like that I'd definitely be looking for a helpful person with a Bowlsaver to rough me out as many bowl blanks as possible from it!

 

[woodbloke]

Jimi, that is one beautiful piece of burr,please,please use it for a bowl, I doubt that it will have the strength to be used as chisel handles as each burr is a stress point,you need something like ash or beech which will give good long lasting handles.Hope this helps you to solve the problem.
Frank S.

Wrong...please don't use it for a bowl as 90% of it will end up on the floor! Frank is right however as it won't have the strength for chisel handles. Best to use it in the solid for something like a box or even better it ought to be sliced up into veneers - Rob

 

[Tony Spear]

Wrong...please don't use it for a bowl as 90% of it will end up on the floor! Rob

That's why I suggested a Bowlsaver! :wink:

 

[wizer]

I don't think you should use it for chisel handles. It can be very hard to get a smooth finish on burrs. You don't want those bits sticking into your hand. Much better to give it to me and I'll turn you a nice bowl

 

[jimi43]

Now....I am going to work at three so please treat this forced absence as a "virtual duck"...but I think that it is arboreal sacrilege to drag a huge wart all the way down the Carpathian mountains and ship it to Kent only to be turned into a fruit holder!

Now don't get me wrong....I love looking at bowls in awe at the way the curvature maximises the ability for the eye to see into these beautiful aberrations of nature...but....I often think that there must be other ways to display these living jewels!

And I also want to think "out of the box" (pun intended) on this one....

So before it enters the slicer to become simply a veneer of its former self...(oh boy the puns are flyin' today...!!!)....

I think I read somewhere (perhaps in a dream)...that you can impregnate holey burr structure with a resin which would allow its use in other ways...such as the dashboards of very expensive motor vehicles?

On the subject of courseness Tom....I think that impregnation using something like a very watery clear resin such as the West System...would fill and allow these knobbly bits to be smoothed.

SO....before I am excommunicated by the entire spinning and box fabricating community of UKW.....can I have licence to think of other means and uses?

Cheers

Jim

 

[chingerspy]

A display stand

It has worked well as that in the past.

 

[frugal]

At the back of Andrew Crawfords Book of Boxes book there is a beautiful box made in regular thick slabs of burr elm that looks wonderful.

 

[AndyT]

Can't you make a guitar out of it? Resaw it into thick slices, cut into pieces that would fit together and laminate it onto something in the middle for strength ... can you tell I know nothing about guitars... or maybe quite a lot of really nice fingerboards (is that the right word?) on guitars?

 

[jimi43]

Yes...it has served me well as being a display stand for pictures...seems a shame to change that use...I might just cut a thin slab off the top and mount it on something nice as a permanent .

I think that boxes are nice as presents etc...and indeed I made one years ago for my daughter and inlaid her name on the top. Now I think the only boxes I can see making are ones to house expensive tools...maybe if I bought a low angle LN then it might deserve a beautiful box...but my Stanley No.7 is ok in its original plywood one for now


I was thinking about some part of the guitar...the piece I have is not big enough for a whole front or back but maybe a Euk or Mandolin...that is a distinct possibility.

I guess some handcut veneer is the way to go...but I am not a furniture person so I will have to wait until I am excited enough about a design to crown it with some veneer of this type...

I am still thinking about the impregnation route...has anyone done this with resin to stabilize beautiful but inherently unstable or crazy grain?

Jim

 

[gasman]

Got to say I agree with Rob and Jimi - turning this would be such a waste of 90% of such beautiful wood.... I have made drawer fronts from walnut burr with 'normal' wood for drawer sides and backs inside a Pennsylvania spice box and it goes a long way when used like that

 

[TobyB]

Think the veneer idea is the one to go for to make the most of this ... don't think it'll work as a mandolin top/back as the structure wouldn't be stable or strong enough to resonate as a soundboard (I'm no luthier, just a player).

 

[chingerspy]

Guitar scratchplates? How lahdeedah would they look

 

[jimi43]

Think the veneer idea is the one to go for to make the most of this ... don't think it'll work as a mandolin top/back as the structure wouldn't be stable or strong enough to resonate as a soundboard (I'm no luthier, just a player).

I have a Rickenbacker electric mandolin up my sleeve somewhere...I just can't see this as "American Bling" wood somehow though....

The thing I am finding most difficult is that the wood is inherently beautiful as a "lump". If I cut it up...I want to get it right first time out to make it into something even more beautiful...

I wonder....would it work for infills in a brass and steel dovetail plane?

Mmmmmm

Jim

 

[Blister]

How about ( 3 ) shallow platters :mrgreen:
Instead of 1 deep bowl

That way 3 people get to enjoy the bur in all its beauty

And on the comments of waste , who turned it round on a band saw and what happened to all the rest of it ? did that end up on the workshop floor :wink: