Very Large Oak Burl

I was offered a very large oak burl the measured about 6 ft in diameter. The burl was on an old oak tree on a central Minnesota farm. The tree estimated to be over several hundred 100 years old. The tree was cut down due to decay and its old age. A friend cut the burl into four large pieces. Two of the pieces were hauled 200 miles to my shop (using a loader and large pick up truck). The following photos show several photos of these burls and our first cut for a trial bowl. The glove gives some idea of size, but these burl pieces are each about 45" x 35". A section of one is shown being cut using a chain saw with a 24" bar. This section will be used to turn a bowl to evaluate the quality of the burl. Parts of each burl piece are soft and dacayed and not useable for bowls, so we are only cutting the solid areas. These solid areas also have interesting surface patterns just below the bark. These patterns should provide nice live edges for bowls.

The next photos show the bowl blank attached to a lathe and the resulting fresh turned bowl. The trimmed bowl blank was cut from a solid section of the burl shown above. The resulting rough turned bowl is also shown below. This bowl is about 13" in diameter and 7" high. The wood has an interesting wavy grain pattern that will be more pronounced after drying, sanding, and oiling. I will post more photos here as new bowls are turned.