I have had lots of questions from turners on how to turn a burl cap. Many have never turned one before.

These are the basics.  I will cover wing edge, and natural edge.  There are many other things you can do, which you will see in my gallery and the other artists gallery.  Creativity is your only limitation

I make no claims about being the expert, but offer my guidance on what works for me.  I have tried many methods of turning these fine woods, and am happy to answer any questions.

One thing I feel is important.  Many people have expressed being nervous about turning an expensive piece of wood and ruining it.  Also mentioned is nervousness about being hurt.  Let me say two things.  One is that I strongly believe in practicing safe turning.  With this in mind I have not ever been hurt turning a burl (scratches yes, but no serious blood, bruises, or dismemberment (grinning as I knock on wood).  Second is that I also believe that we all ruin pieces of wood whether they are free or cost hundreds of dollars.  To me this is part of the learning process.  I guess my philosophy is that if you goof on a piece of wood (regardless of price), it means you are pushing the limits of your turning ability, and know how far you can go.  This is part of my inner makeup.  Push yourself and your turning will get better much faster.

How do I start?

I usually mount the cap to a faceplate, but have started between centers as well.  You could use a screw chuck as well (I don't like them). First find the center of the cap, which I consider to be the tallest point of the cap (which may not be the center of the piece).  If you are turning a wing-edge bowl, mount the face plate to the flat side of the cap, and if you are wanting a natural edge piece then mount the faceplate to the rounded side of the cap (which you can grind, saw, or plane flat enough to have a good surface for the face plate.  Doing nothing is an option as well as you will see below).  Also, when doing a natural edge piece, you may want to cut the cap round to make it easier for yourself.

I use 1.5" or 2.5" self tapping wood screws to hold the burl on the faceplate. I do not pre-drill my mounting holes.  If you get your screws from Lowe's or HD, use the square screw driver (instead of the Phillips.  The screws usually can use either) and these screws will last quite a long time.

This is the beginning of the natural edge piece.  I have cut the edges round as they will end up on the floor anyway.  The glossy area is waxed from where I cut it.	A wing edge piece.  I am using a very bug eaten piece to illustrate that this is a great piece of wood to start with.  Two reasons.  One is that the grain around the bug eaten areas is always better and secondly the piece costs less due to the bugs doing part of the work.

When mounting the faceplate to the natural edge side, be sure to mount it as close to the natural edge as possible.  This will insure a mostly evenly distributed natural edge.  You are working with the slope and will remove some of the bottom.  Of course, some like the one edge high	Place the cap on a surface where you can determine the natural high point of the cap.  Most caps are not perfectly symmetrical, so you may have to mount off center like the photo above.  Of course you can force to center, but you will lose some of the height from the bottom.

Most Burls start out of balance.  So I always take the lathe up to the highest speed I can and trim down the cap.  As the cap becomes more in balance, I increase speed.  Patience is a real virtue here.  Make a tenon for holding the bowl with a chuck. It is very bumpy turning the burl cap smooth so go slow, insure your gouge is sharp, and hold on with a good underhand grip.  Of course, don't forget to be safe and wear proper face, eye and lung protection.

I begin to shape the bottom of the bowl by removing all or part of the spikes. This is purely subjective to your eye as to whether to turn them all off or not.  I usually turn them all off (except for the wing edge).  See below for the natural edge style.

The beginning of forming the bottom.  This piece is 15" diameter and I am leaving a 4" tenon that is about 1/8" long.  These burls are extremely solid and there is no need to leave a long tenon	A view from the side as I take off the natural edge and start to form the wing edge.
A little more comes off but there is still a nice gap.  Back to the gouge	Here is the final look from turning the bottom of the piece to completion.  Notice the thickness of the edge.  This will come way down when turning the other side as the thinnest part of the edge is now ~3/8".

Your eye will tell you how much wing to leave.   I make the wing about 3/8" thick because I have to turn away some of the other side to flatten it when I start hollowing the bowl.

When the tenon has been made and the bottom has been turned to my satisfaction I mount the tenon to a chuck and remove the faceplate.

Turning the inside

The piece has been mounted.  Note the bug holes are still there and there is nothing up my sleeve (grin)	I work the edge down to final thickness which is about a 1/4".  These burls are very strong and can be turned to an 1/8" or less and they will maintain their integrity.  On this type of piece I prefer to leave a little mass.

I always turn the edge to final thickness of about 1/4".  As you can see in the photo above, I have left the center to flatten and then prepare to carve out the center of the bowl.  I like to work from the outside in and in the large pieces I like, the harmonics of the wood prefer me to work from the outside in as well.

I am starting to turn out the center.  Notice the bug holes are almost gone and I am hardly into the bowl.	A view of the mostly sanded piece.  The entire bowl thickness is ~1/4".  You can go thicker or thinner, depending on your style and comfort level.  The dark holes you see are actually knots and are not bug holes. and the dark line is CA glue to keep the knot in place.

As I start to turn the inside I look through the spinning bowl to see my outside edge.  This is made possible by the irregularity of the shape of the cap.  When you get yours going, you will see what I mean.

The Natural edge piece

Mounted to the lathe.  yes this piece is quite out of balance.  However it turns off quickly, and I am tired of cutting.	After a few minutes the bottom is turned off and the tenon is started.  I always work from the bottom up on pieces like this.  Remember there is not grain orientation to worry about with burl.
I just keep working my way up from the bottom........  Note the beautiful brown grain starting to show through.	Until the bowl is shaped the way I like it.  Time to flip it over to do the inside.
Flipped and mounted to the chuck.  This piece is large enough to core at least once...........	So here is the bowl after the first coring.  It is about 10" diameter and 5.5 deep.  Because of the way the piece is mounted to the lathe when starting, it is not necessary to have a perfect shape which allows for a taller piece.

On this style, thin is definitely in.  This final piece (which has been sanded) is 1/8" thick.  Brown Mallee (as well as the rest of the burls) are very stable and can be worked quite thin.  I work from the edge to the center.  Now off to core again and and finish the babies.

Sanding

When sanding, I use 80, 120, and 180 both by hand and with a power sander.  It is difficult to get a smooth edge on the natural edge with the power sander and the lathe moving, but quite easy to do with the lathe standing still.

Finishing
I seal all of my work with an oil poly mix.  I find that this mix does darken the wood slightly, but it helps soak into the burl and prevent movement as best I can tell.

For the final finish I generally use one coat of sanding sealer and then 2 or more coats of semi gloss lacquer.  Both are sprayed with an HVLP sprayer.  I will occasionally just leave the oil finish, but shiny sells better.

This turned out better that I hoped for!  Absolutely beautiful	This is the finished piece from the photos above.  There are several variations on this theme which you can see throughout the site.  Also notice that having a perfectly round cap is not necessary.  This cap started out as a bug eaten, ugly looking piece of wood.  What a lovely finished piece of work.