Cherry Burl Hollow Form

Vaughn McMillan

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
36,043
Location
ABQ NM
Pete Jordan tossed a piece of cherry burl into the box as an extra bonus a while back in a pen exchange. I was hoping to make arrows out of it, but as you can see, the grain is not straight at all, so it would have made very poor arrows. :rolleyes:

HF054 - 16 800.jpg

So I decided to hollow it out and do the best I could with this horrific piece of wood. :rofl: (Plus, I figured I couldn't let Steve Schlumpf be the only guy turning Southwest forms...heck, I grew up there.) :p Despite its ugliness, the wood cut and finished nicely. :D It's about 7" wide and 3 1/2" tall, finished with Formby's Tung Oil Finish, then tripoli and Renaissance Wax buffed. It's very, very smooth. LOML says it feels like alabaster.

HF054 - 10 800.jpg HF054 - 12 800.jpg HF054 - 13 800.jpg HF054 - 08 800.jpg HF054 - 06 800.jpg HF054 - 04 800.jpg HF054 - 01 800.jpg

And here's an animated version, just for fun.

BTW, I don't think I ever posted a pic of the sweet pen Pete made for me. It's been so long since he sent it, I've forgotten what type of wood it is, but it's gorgeous. (Hopefully he'll chime in with more details about the pen.)

Pete Jordan Exchange Pen 01 - 800.jpg

Many thanks to Pete for the pen, and also for the superb piece of cherry burl. I think this is the nicest cherry burl I've ever turned.

I'm open to any comments and critiques, good or bad -
 
Vaughn thats some beautiful work. :thumb: I like the pic that looks down in the form and shows the hole in the bottom. How did you make the animated film and what program did you use? Every time I try a hollow form the top of it runs up my hollowing tool at some point.

Larry
 
Beautiful hollow form Vaughn! Amazing wood! This one has the wild grain patterns that you always hope you'll find in cherry! Love the form and all the character of the piece!

You should be proud of this one! Very, very nice work! Thanks for sharing!
 
Vaughn you do amazing work. I find it hard to believe you cant make a full time living from your work. :( But then I guess the fun would be taken out of it.:D:thumb:

You sure are an inspiration to me.:thumb:
 
That's where that burl went...

You did a wonderful job as always! I hope I can do half as good with the ones I have left..I do not remember the kind of wood the pen is.


Keep setting the bar real high!
 
Beautiful job Vaughn. I can see I am going to have a LOT to learn. (You giving lessons McMillan ?

I have a question. Just what or why does a "burl" form on a tree? Is it from an injury? Or maybe from an infection? Curious minds want to know. (Yes, I know I could just GOOGLE it.)

Again, very nice job Vaughn.

Aloha, Tony
 
Thanks for the kind words, guys. :thumb:

How did you make the animated film and what program did you use?

I took a series of pictures with the camera on a tripod, and trying to rotate the piece in the same place, then used a trial version of Easy GIF Animator to stitch it all together. I wasn't planning to animate it when I took the pics, so they could be improved. I may re-shoot a new series of photos and see if I can do a better one.

...I have a question. Just what or why does a "burl" form on a tree? Is it from an injury? Or maybe from an infection?...

From what I've read, you're pretty much on the money. It's an abberation caused by injury or disease. I read of one case where a sawyer was finding lots of small pieces of lead in a maple burl, presumably an old shotgun wound. Some trees are more prone to growing them than others, which explains why cherry and maple burl are relatively common, but you don't hear about purpleheart or zebrawood burl.
 
Top