Oak knot bowl

[green-winged hen]

Someone gave me 4 large oak knots, or that's what i think they are. They've been drying about 4 years and I thought I'd try making a bowl from one of them. I'm going to use my Foredom to start hollowing it out. There's bark all over the outside. I thought I'd leave some of it around the rim. Does anyone have experience with this? I want to do this by hand, not on a lathe.

[Claude]

Welcome to the forum!

It sounds to me as if it will be beautiful when finished. Please show us photos of the work as you progress with it.

Claude

[green-winged hen]

thanx Claude. I intended to start this today and got side tracked on a sunflower that will be a Christmas ornament. I'll try to start putting some pictures on the site soon.

[hwallen48]

Originally Posted by green-winged hen

Someone gave me 4 large oak knots, or that's what i think they are. They've been drying about 4 years and I thought I'd try making a bowl from one of them. I'm going to use my Foredom to start hollowing it out. There's bark all over the outside. I thought I'd leave some of it around the rim. Does anyone have experience with this? I want to do this by hand, not on a lathe.

Can't wait to se the Photos.

[green-winged hen]

I mis-spoke yesterday, this is an oak burl, I don't know why yesterday I called it a knot. I'll be starting on it today. Hope to post some pictures this afternoon.

[davidinsarasota]

Four years is some good age, dryness wise. I attempted an Oak dish with bark around the rim, but found that once the majority was removed the rest peeled away too easily.

I think you will learn a lot about your burls once you cut through the bark that you are going to remove.

[green-winged hen]

david, thanx for the input. I started today but it is going very slow. whew! that oak is VERY hard. no pictures today and I'm going out of town for a few days so won't get back to it till next week. I'll try taking off some bark and see what it looks like. Maybe i'll end up taking it all off so it will be smooth all over.

[Canopener]

Green,
First off, and some one please correct me if I am wrong, but oak burl dust is toxic and hard on the lungs. So please take appropriate safety precautions if sanding or anything that produces dust.
Second; I too have a very nice oak burl that I cut years ago and had great plans for. But I found it to be really hard and tough on my hand tools, so I gave up. I hope you have more fun with yours.
Good luck and keep safe.
Jim

[dennybell]

A friend of mine specializes in bowls made from burls. He uses a tool he made from a bricklayers hammer to hollow out the bowl. It is basically a small adze when he gets it made. He sharpens it with one of the floppy cotton buffing wheels and can really move some wood with it! After he gets it shaped the way he wants it, he uses pieces of glass as scrapers to get it to the final smoothness. As for design, he lets the wood tell him what it should be.

Denny

[MAXJRNC]

Hi !

You Might Want To Google king Arthur Tools Or Look For Them On Ebay. These Are Disks, With Chain Saw Blade Attached, That Mount On A 4 1/4" Grinder. I Saw These Demoed At The Klingspor Woodworking Show In Hickory,nc This Wekend ! Man You Talk About Moving Some Wood !!!!! They Were Carving On Large Burls, One Cherry And One Was Birds Eye Maple. I Went On Fri. To Take Some Carvings To Enter In The Show, And I Watched The Guy Carve For A Bit. He Was Working On The Cherry Burl , Huge About 2 Ft. I Went Back Sat. Afternoon He Was Finished With The Cherry One, And Working On The Maple One. I Almost Bought A Set Of The Blades There But, Didn't Guess I'll Put That In My Letter To Santa.
Oh You Said You Want To Use Hand Tools Didn't Ya ?
Well Like Tom Wolf Said He Told Someone ,after They Asked Him If Using A Recipicating Carver Wasn't Cheating , He Told Them He Had Never Seen That Thing Work On It's Own ! My Hand Makes It Do What I Want It To , To Get The Result I Want!
Good Luck With Your Project !