Burrs

[Duiker]

Hi All,

I bought my first burr today and am looking forward to giving it a go. Given the bloody price however I dont want to b*gger it up. Have any of you got any handy tips to keep it simple and end up with a piece that will look decent? Basically all I need to know is am I going to have to do anything special (chucking/speed/chisels etc).

Cheers,

Mick

 

[Taffy Turner]

Mick,

I turned my first burr during the Christmas holidays. It was a 12" x 3" thick peice of Elm burr. I was a bit nervous about it as I had never turned one before, but I was amazed at how nicely it cut.

It was just like turning a piece of normal Elm. HOWEVER - I would not make that assumption about all burrs. What is yours - I have heard that some of the Australian burrs can be very hard indeed.

I guess general precautions would be to make sure your tools are sharp, slow the sped down a bit and take light cuts until you get a feel for it. I did read somewhere that some burrs are so hard that gouges don't really work on them, and that you have to resort to scraping them - must take ages!

I am sure someone with more experience if turning burrs will be along soon with some more detailed advice (hopefully).

Good luck!

Gary

 

[blurk99]

Hi Mick,
Most of the more recent turning i've done has been using burrs and i've thought they turn easier than wood blanks. I've used Coolibah, Thuya, Flexulosa, Eucalyptus, Mallee and Myrtle burrs in the last few months and because of the great figuring i kept the design of the bowls very simple. I didn't have much luck with the high speed finishing oil i've got - one bowl had 4 goes at getting that to work before i recut the surface and just used shellac, but shellac and wax stick have both worked well. Also, and i don't know if this is generally applied, a couple of the burrs have been very wet in the centre, i still finished them though and then allowed them to distort whilst drying, that does make for some very strange effects of already highly figured wood...

Have fun

Jim

 

[Duiker]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the advice.

I tried to catch the name of the burr but missed it (in Dutch of course) so I'll need to get them to write it down for me so I can look it up. It should be on my recipt too but I cant read hi handwriting either.

I'll give it my undivided attention this weekend and post the pictures as long as it comes out OK.

Cheers,

Mick

 

[Duiker]

Hi Guys,

I had a look at the piece this weekend and decided to leave it for a bit as I'm not sure how to mount it?

It happens to be a handy "cone shape" which will lend itself well to a simple vase shaped bowl but I'm having trouble as the "big" end is too uneven to mount a ring. This means I'm not sure how to cut the bottom so as I can fit it in the chuck to turn out the bowl. Any ideas? I can post a picture if it makes life easier?

Cheers,

Mick