My First Commissioned Piece

Just before Christmas my grandson asked me if I could turn a burl if he brought the burl. He talked about a lady who had a burl and what would I charge to turn this burl. We agreed to a price and he brought the burl when him and his parents came for Christmas. After the festivities were over I had a look at this burl and found that I could probably get 2 pieces from it, if I could only figure out what kind of burl I had on my hands. Cutting it was a simple thing with the chainsaw and aromatic too, meaning the wood really smelled when cut into.


The first piece was fitted unto the lathe and it wasn't very long till the whole shop smelled as a matter of fact my wife came out to see what the aroma was all about. She said that it smelled like Pinesol a cleaner that used to be prominent. The wood was very waxy and sticky when turning it. When it came to sanding I needed to clean the sand paper every couple of seconds or so because it filled up so quickly. This bowl I wanted to put antique oil on it and then use the Beal Buffing System on it.

The second piece turned just like the first, really easy wood to work with as far as cutting into it. With this piece I wanted to emphasize the irregular aspects of the burl so to bring that out I needed to put it on the lathe in such a way that I was cutting a lot of air. When I looked at how this piece was starting to develop I knew that I wanted to give this one a real shine since it had wonderful chatoyance and grain pattern. This has been my first time at renting myself out so to speak and it really has worked out well in my opinion.