I highly recommend Frank Howarth’s YouTube channel. I could watch him work for days and he is a great introduction to everything wood turning, from artistic inspiration of wood choice to tools and process. He’s just a pleasure to watch.
Maker spaces tend to focus on high-tech tools, like 3D printers, laser cutters, electronic cutters (cricut/silhouette), etc. Some also have woodshops but that's less common and typically requires more space.
In the UK there are maker spaces of all varieties. But you are right, woodworking spaces need room for the equipment. If you are a hand-tool only woodworker, then there isn't really a need to use someone else's (unsharpened) tools.
So the works Cindy displays are beautiful but is wood turning the way to "make the most of your burl"?
I feel like there's a value that's related the surface area you can get out of a given burl. If you have a burl, are you better off trying to cut thin panels with parallel slices? With turning, though a skilled artisan can produce a beautiful result, don't you lose out on a lot of volume?
It is really really difficult to make any thing from a burl that is within the range of a hobbyist that isn’t turned. The grain is impossible, and they are really hard so working it with normal tools (a hand plane or a spoke shave) is just going to tear out as the direction of grain changes. I’ve never seen a veneer cutter that could handle a burl that was within hobbyist reach, but a lathe is going to cost you under 1000$ and probably under 500$ if you get a used one with good capacity.
Those are beautiful! And I love the way you get seemingly continuous grain all the way around. If you no longer work on these, I would love to learn more about the processes you use for the pressure infusing and the finishing.
Once in high school woodwork class I had to make an artificial burl out of scraps to try and show off some wood turning fu I didn't actually have. Open day does that: look like you know what you're doing.
Eric Sloane would have loved this, it's a true reverence for wood.
If they are made by cutting a ring shape out of wood, the grain is too weak for long term wear.
I more common method for wooden rings is to cut a long thin rip at 1/16th”. Soak it water for 30 minutes. Wrap it around something finger size, put a rubber band around it and let it dry. You can get a good imitation of a glossy epoxy finish with CA/super glue. This gives a lot more strength than a cutout.
I don't think that is true- I build and restore both wooden and fiberglass boats with epoxy, and have used it in almost every possible way. There are different thicknesses of epoxy with different properties, but the ones specially designed for penetrating deeply into wood - such as clear penetrating epoxy sealer will indeed penetrate extremely deep into wood, the manufacturer claims 9-16". In practice, almost any epoxy will penetrate at least 1" into wood.
If anything, epoxy often has too much penetration, and I end up doing a first coat or two that disappear fully into the wood, and another thickened one so it actually stays on the surface or joint.
Yes, but that's generally not something you want to be doing the week before a wedding. It's _very_ easy to forget to do, and hard for the best man to run around and fix while you panic.
I used to find burls with a neighbor. He was an amazing wood turner.
He told me to do it for extra money, so one summer I went off on my own to start cutting them.
And that's the story of how I learned that sometimes burls form when a tree grows around a fence post. Alternate title: Stihl chainsaws can't cut steel fencing.
i use a metal detector. some of these trees can be a stash[cashe] and you may encounter things hidden long ago, most of them not good for your chain, some of them not good for you.
Veneer gets a bad rap but it’s a great way to make highly-figured wood available to as many people as possible. And since burl and spalted woods are often unstable or have big pits or cracks, it’s a good way to avoid structural problems.
I should start taking classes now so that I’ll be ready to pivot to woodworking when AI replaces engineers.