Burl Maple

[Clear Spring Armory]

I was walking my little monsters through my Father-In-Laws woods today, showing them where the squirrels are cutting Beech, and found this. I'm pretty sure its Hard Maple, and has a big burl 6-8' up. It looks like my Father-In-Law started to cut it last year when they were cutting firewood, so those wounds may likely kill it anyway. I think I'll cut it it regardless, but I had a few questions. I've read quite a bit about regular stock wood, but with burl, is there any special considerations? Where would you buck it up? There's no wavyness to the bark above or below the burl, so I assume there's probably not much curl there, would I be better off using it for something besides gunstocks? Is burled maple HC?  And I think I've seen posts about cutting stock wood here before, but if not allowed, moderator please put in appropriate place.

[n stephenson]

CSA,  I`m no wood  specialist , but I worked on a burl bowl one time. I would think it would be rough to work it into a gunstock. The working of it wouldn't bother me as much as the structural integrity . The grain goes every which way. Someone on here may have had success with it , I don`t know.  JMHO  Nate

[Eric Krewson]

I have cut up a bunch of trunk burls for handles and overlays on bows, all of the wood was full of voids and bark inclusions, definitely not stock wood. Burl wood is as hard as a rock as well and would be very hard to work.

This piece of oak burl has a bunch of super glue in it to fill the voids, it took repeated soakings.



The burl you have heard of for stocks is actually wood from the lower trunk and root "burl".

[rich pierce]

Turners love burl wood, making bowls and what not. i think that is where the money is here.  Think about it, most of the burl is outside what you'd slab into gunstock blanks.

[mtlonghunter]

Talk to Jim Kibler about it. He built a spectacular fowler with one.

[Mike Brooks]

I made a pistol out of a cherry burl, not a pleasant job. It is now back here as the owner went on a New Years Eve drunk and stuffed it full of powder and pulled the trigger. Snapped the pistol through the grip and broke the frizzen spring. Thankfully God always seems to watch out for drunks.... It's been here for repair for years. I'm just a wee bit miffed that such a stupid thing was done to something I built so I have been ignoring repairing it. it' going to be a tough repair as the grip is covered with silver wire.... I don't know if the burl was part of the reason the stock broke or not....I'm thinking not.

Anyway, back to the question at hand....The euros loved to build pistol out of burled maple, and some long guns as well. I think the "fad" was mostly in the late 1600's? I don't recall for sure.

If I were going to use that tree for gunstocks I'd lay out the butts of the blanks close to the burls as there will be radiating curl going away from those burls for a bit. I'd saw the burls off and get them to a wood turner, they love to make stuff out of those things.

[PPatch]

Go to Jim Kiblers website and check out what he created with a chunk of burl.

http://www.jimkibler.net/

dave

[rich pierce]

Go to Jim Kiblers website and check out what he created with a chunk of burl.

http://www.jimkibler.net/

dave

Is that burl a growth on the outside of a tree as we see here and if so how rare is it to find one full length for a longrifle?

[Hemo]

This is a piece of "burled maple" I got from Jim Kibler--I believe it is out of the same blank he used to make his spectacular burled fowler. If I recall correctly, he got the blank from Wallace Gusler and thinks it may be western broadleaf maple. Most of the stock,especially on the right side, looks more like striped curly maple than burl.  I'm currently making this piece up as a circa 1700 English horse pistol, using Jim's Dolep lock castings. As noted above, I think these pieces, rather than coming from actual tree burls, are from low trunk or root wood, well compressed by the weight of the tree. I doubt that you could get much of a stock out of that big burl in the picture (maybe a pistol stock?).







Gregg

[Mike Brooks]

That's going to be a great pistol!

[Hemo]

That's going to be a great pistol!

Thanks, Mike. There has been considerable progress since those pictures were taken, and it's coming close. I just need to make up an ornate sideplate and thumbpiece, casting in Delft clay.
My first attempt at brass casting, with some trepidation, probably will happen next week.

Gregg

[PPatch]

Go to Jim Kiblers website and check out what he created with a chunk of burl.

http://www.jimkibler.net/

dave

Is that burl a growth on the outside of a tree as we see here and if so how rare is it to find one full length for a longrifle?

Rich, you'll have to ask Jim about that. I believe the tree was one he cut down.

dave

[Long John]

Sean,

Judging from the bark that is a white (hard) maple.  I would have cut it differently down at the base and would have waited until January but you have started so you have to go from where you are.

From the looks of the burl there are very likely some bark inclusions in those burls.  The problem is in figuring out where they are so you can slab the stock blank in a manner that the bark inclusions do not interfere with the structure of the stock.  From what I see from your photo I would slab it right down the middle.  (I could be wrong - I agonize over how to make my cuts for hours/days)  Then slab off the sides parallel to yield a 2.5 to 3.0 inch thick plank.  Paint the ends liberally with an oil-base paint and apply as much store-bought boiled linseed to the plank faces as it will take to slow down drying.  Right now that tree is about 30 to 40 percent water by weight.   (Winter cut wood is about 15% water.)  The wood will shrink as it dries.  The linseed oil on the plank faces will slow down the rate at which moisture can leave the plank and reduce (not eliminate) the tendency to check.

Good luck!

JMC
John Cholin

[Clear Spring Armory]

Thanks for the replies guys.

John, I agree it should have been cut lower (someone else started to cut it, don't know who or why). The good news is they probably didn't get past sap wood.

So my plan after consulting with you guys: dig down and cut as low as I can, buck up under the burl (get a 6 or 7' section that includes the butt), buck up again at first limb (get a 9 or 10' section that includes burl), saw burl section down pith and examine burl area. If its sound, slab saw into planks. If not, cut away burl for turnings and pray there's figure in the rest.

[Daryl]

That's going to be a great pistol!

Going to be special!