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Hello everyone.

Today I went into the woods to harvest an aspen burl that I saw last weekend while taking a walk. The tree is dead and it appears to have been for a while (it still stands though, and it seems to be a favourite for woodpeckers, judging from the holes all over the trunk). anyway, I went ahead and sawed of two pieces from the burl part. The figure turned out to be really cool, I think so at least.

The wood appears to be spalted rather than being normal burl figure, but the problem is that the wood is very soft in some places, especially in the dark areas on the three blocks on the right that look like plateaux blocks (see pics 2 and 3). And I mean really soft, like wet sawdust.

My question is. Do you guys think this is spalted and thus worth saving or is it just a rotten burl found to late on a dead tree?

Thanks.

/Albert

Looks and sounds too far gone for anything but casting or stabilizing. Even then I don't think you would appreciate the pattern in pipe ring/inlay sized pieces. Looks like some pretty sweet knife handles though if they were dried completely and stabilized.

Yeah that's what I thought. As soon as I cut it open I saw that it wouldn't be good for rings or extensions or things of that nature (pattern wise), but I appreciate all kinds of wood working so I just wanted to see if there is any point in saving these pieces.

Alden wrote:Looks and sounds too far gone for anything but casting or stabilizing. Even then I don't think you would appreciate the pattern in pipe ring/inlay sized pieces. Looks like some pretty sweet knife handles though if they were dried completely and stabilized.

This ^

In my opinion it is definitely worth saving. It would make awesome knife handles. I've stabilized basically rotten white oak (lighter than balsa) and it works and looks great.

Jthompson1995 wrote:In my opinion it is definitely worth saving. It would make awesome knife handles. I've stabilized basically rotten white oak (lighter than balsa) and it works and looks great.

Cool, did you send it away to have it stabilized or did you do it yourself somehow? And is stabilizing done before or after the wood is dry?

Alden wrote:Looks and sounds too far gone for anything but casting or stabilizing. Even then I don't think you would appreciate the pattern in pipe ring/inlay sized pieces. Looks like some pretty sweet knife handles though if they were dried completely and stabilized.

IAWRA

Looks like too much rot or dirt to even consider for stabilizing.

Albert.A wrote:Cool, did you send it away to have it stabilized or did you do it yourself somehow? And is stabilizing done before or after the wood is dry?

The oak I stabilized myself but I have sent wood to be professionally stabilized as well. I have a small vacuum stabilizing setup I got from Turntex Wood works. Curtis Seebeck, the owner, really helped pioneer the home casting and stabilizing that has become quite popular with pen makers and other hobbyists. His setups use vacuum to impregnate the wood with a thermoset resin that hardens with low heat in the oven similar to what the pros use. I've turned both and they seem very similar in their performance. The resin is fairly expensive but is cheaper than the pro services if you do a bunch of stabilizing. Plus you can add custom colors.

aspen like white poplar? very soft wood
i've worked with burl like that and you can use it. right now its green maybe 50% mc let it dry slowly in a paper bag or a box with saw dust for a couple months, then you could leave them on a rack or use a fan/heater to finish drying it. anything faster will likely cause it to check and crack right through
wax can be helpful
cut it into the blanks you want to use then soak it with 1-2lb cut of shellac
maybe twice
after rough sanding try using ca to saturate the soft spots and sawdust/wood flour/wood filler to fill the voids

stablizing is another route, like using a vacuum and wood stabalizer. haven't tried that. the shellac method is like a less rock hard version, depends on what you want to use it for