I have a chunk of oak burl out in the wood pile that has been weathering for a few years,and I think the time has come to turn it into a wood spirit. Most of my carving so far has been with palm tools on fairly soft woods, and this stuff seems to dull my tools pretty quicky with little progress. So is it time to move up to some full size tools and bang away at something besides my head on the bench? The other thing is that the burl seems kind of crumbly despite it's hardness, will it start to fall apart halfway through the project? And what is this I have read about oak burl toxicity? Thanks in advance for any info. Great site, tips and commraderie.

I'm not so sure that it would be a good idea to carve a piece of oak burl. I have turned it, in my opinion it is fine turning wood, but it cracks/checks a lot. If you are going to carve it, however, you should probably consider power carving it. By that I mean using a Dremel, Foredom or even angle grinder. I don't think I would even use a reciprocating power carver.

I've done some relief carving in oak and that works o.k. providing the tools are up to it. But don't think I would attmpt a burl, seems to me that that's about one step away from Osage Orange. Got me curious now though, think I've got a couple out back. Gonna give it a go. I'll get back to you.

That didn't take long ... duncan carver was correct, hard and crumbly ... I used three brands of tools Stubai, Pfiel, and Ramelson . The Stubai and Ramelson survived the ordeal, but the Pfiel is going to need a little resharpeing. Not to worry, it's good steel, just wrong bevel for hard wood. Anyway, the piece of burl I tried had been sitting for about 8 or 9 years, so a fresher piece might be softer. Think I'd stick with power carving.if your going to do it.