Enter The Burly Gates

[Heyjoe]

Found this piece of discarded dunnage at work and noticed it had some serious figure. Planed it down and voila! Burl oak. The knot that caused this condition left plenty of solid hardwood to work over.

Oak is notoriously bad for carving but I thought maybe I could try my hand at making some grips or knife scales.

Anybody have experience shaping oak? Words of wisdom, advice welcomed.

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[Nosferatu]

Looks pretty porous. You might consider filling it with epoxy before doing anything with it.

Do you have a moisture meter?

 

[Heyjoe]

Looks pretty porous. You might consider filling it with epoxy before doing anything with it.

Do you have a moisture meter?

Yep, good thinking.

Nope.

 

[drstrangelove]

Oak is very porous. The epoxy bath is a good idea but won't fill internal voids that show up as you shape unless you can pressure treat.

Burl is also very brittle and oak splinters easily. Use sharp as F tools and only cut away from grain.

Final finish should aim to fill holes to level. I use 1/3 spar, mineral spirits, and BLO to wet sand and set between coats. The holes fill with sawdust and spar sets.

Don't use burl on hard use knives. I don't recommend it for hard kicking pistol grips either.

 

[2Wheels4Ever]

I'd get it stabilized. Send it off to get done. It will fill the voids, make it stronger and impervious to moisture. You can also add dyes to make it really pop.

 

[Stomper]

Do you have a moisture meter?

I do, but my wife has dibs on it.

 

[JuglansRegia]

Looks like a lot of endgrain; what kind of tools do you have?

 

[ferret427]

Oak sucks to carve, but if you have good tools and skill it can be done. My grandfather carved curved appliques of fruit and vines for a bowed-leg fireplace mantel (mantle is a piece of clothing or responsibility, not furniture) in red oak. Took a couple of weeks, but was beautiful. This was in the early '90s, and was featured in a local newspaper. I don't have a pic though. You really would have to see it to believe it. Dad and I did the mantel and the main face shell carvings.

Never tried carving oak burl, model the carving on a computer and send it out to be CNC carved would be my recommendation. Burl would be tricky to carve I would think. Most things I have used burl were flat or veneers.

 

[Heyjoe]

Burl is also very brittle and oak splinters easily. Use sharp as F tools and only cut away from grain

I'd get it stabilized. Send it off to get done. It will fill the voids, make it stronger and impervious to moisture. You can also add dyes to make it really pop.

This will end up in the fire pit before I go through all that trouble. The cost of getting it prepared for milling would not be cost effective, I think.

I may still try something, though.

 

[Heyjoe]

Looks like a lot of endgrain; what kind of tools do you have?

Yes, it's a swirly mess. I was thinking I'd saw it to a couple pieces .375" or so then use a die grinder/files for the shaping bit and sand it smooth.

Oak sucks to carve, but if you have good tools and skill it can be done. My grandfather carved curved appliques of fruit and vines for a bowed-leg fireplace mantel (mantle is a piece of clothing or responsibility, not furniture) in red oak. Took a couple of weeks, but was beautiful. This was in the early '90s, and was featured in a local newspaper. I don't have a pic though. You really would have to see it to believe it. Dad and I did the mantel and the main face shell carvings.

Never tried carving oak burl, model the carving on a computer and send it out to be CNC carved would be my recommendation. Burl would be tricky to carve I would think. Most things I have used burl were flat or veneers.

I'll rip it down first and see how it holds up. If it seems relatively stable, I'll shore it up with epoxy and begin carving.

Thanks everyone for the responses! I know oak is a bear to carve so if it doesn't work out no biggie. I can always acquire some good black walnut or rosewood from the lumber place.

 

[lucusloc]

This will end up in the fire pit before I go through all that trouble. The cost of getting it prepared for milling would not be cost effective, I think.

I may still try something, though.

You can get pressure vessels for not too much. Since you want this for grips I would get a small one, then cut the wood up into blanks to treat. Use a thin, slow set epoxy and put the blank in a bath of it, then place the whole thing in the pressure tank and crank it as high as your air compressor will go. This will force the epoxy into all the little voids where is can set up. It may not be as good as a professional setup, but it should be pretty cheap if all you want to do is mess around (at least for epoxy standards, that stuff can stack up in cost pretty fast).