burls

[steamshovel]

Someone I know cut some burls off of a couple trees ( Elm )? I have a couple of question-hope I'm in the right place.
Question 1 After sealing the cut surface do you stack the sealed surface up or down.
Question 2: There are some voids on the cut surface, do I fill these hole with something or I thought about using some kind of tape like duct tape and painting over the tape?

Thanks, Preston

 

[greggas]

Preston;

Does not matter how you stack a burl. You are looking for even air flow around the piece so I would try to avoid having flush cut ends against each other.

Don't bother with the tape...cracks can be filled with anchorseal ( or whatever you are using) and voids I just hit as much as I can. Remember you are trying to control ( not stop) the drying so areas that you cannot hit , like voice, crevices,etc are usually ok if not fully covered.

good luck

 

[low_48]

Are you looking for short term storage, or long term. If you are looking at short term, throw it in a garbage bag. Long term place in a cool dark space with a little air flow. I've had some real success in drying larger blocks by placing a glossy piece of paper into the wet sealer. I tear up catalogs and Sunday paper ads. It slows up the exposure to air better than just sealer. Drying a burl whole will invariably result in cracking. Just like in any large block of wood. If you are going to make pen blanks, cut it up now, but oversize. You will lose less wood to cracking. You never know what is inside a burl. It can have large voids, bark inclusions, bugs, just name it.