Dealing with checks/cracks in burl caps

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philb

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Joined
Sep 1, 2007
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1,561
Location
Midlands, United Kingdom.
Hi,

Just been milling up some brown mallee burr, and on the flatside of the cap (non-spikey!) there a quite a few checks, and small 1mm or so thickness cracks. These only go about 1/4-1/2" into the cap itself, so do I...

Just mill this away as waste, and be left with more uniform blanks or
Just mill up as normal and CA the cracks as im turning?

Just don't want to waste any of the burr, either by turning pens out of unsuitable timber or by chopping it into the scraps box by trimming the cracks off if not needed!

Im going to do a tester pen out of each method anyway to see what they come out like, but just wanted to know what you guys do?

PHIL
 
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workinforwood

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Mar 1, 2007
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8,173
Location
Eaton Rapids, Michigan, USA.
It works good to just turn the pen super close to size. Any cracks, pour some dust on the pen, wipe the dust into the cracks with your finger and then spread some thin CA. The dust can be dust from sanding a scrap of the same material into a cup off the end of a belt sander, or it can be any other type of powder, doesn't even have to be the same color, you can have contrast if you like. You can open up the cracks too with a rotary tool to make them even bigger and then fill with colored inlace, you can mix the inlace real thick with stone powder and the options go on and on...
 

philb

Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2007
Messages
1,561
Location
Midlands, United Kingdom.
Cheers guys have done the dust in the cracks many times!

Was more worry about whether it was worth hassle to use a piece with a lot of hairline type cracks, or just to cut further into the burl before milling the blanks?

Just dont want the blanks to explode and have wasted a ton of wood, for trying to save an extra 1/4"! But im off to try both cracked and uncracked tomorrow, so ill let you know! And ill try and get some pics of the burr beforehand with cracks!

CHEERS PHIL
 
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