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biffvernon
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Flyfisher said:
Similar but different. Burrs form from growths caused by some sort of damage to the tree where lots of little twigs emerge.
Some 'burr walnut' is actually taken from the base of the trunk and top of roots rather than being a real burr.
LadyArowana
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robgil said:
:roll: now Joce wants some :lol: .
Nigel Watts
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You also get this in English elm, and most beautiful it can be too. I made my dining table out of two six foot by eighteen inch elm planks with wild grain and quite a bit of pippiness. The most pippy bits were in protuberances at the outer edges and had to be sawn off, but they are so nice I cant bring myself to throw away the offcuts.
Sanding is the easiest way to finish such wood, but a purist cabinetmaker - which I aspired to be, once upon a time - would not approve. Sanding works well but dulls the grain slightly (only very slightly, it has to be admitted). If you have a very good and well tuned smoothing plane, with a thick heavy razor sharp blade, finely set, with the narrowest mouth, it should be able to cope with much of the surface and it will look stunning. A well sharpened cabinet scraper will deal with the really tricky bits. I find oak is a joy to plane (if you dont mind your fingers going black from the tannins), and it should be easier than elm which, although soft, dulls the blade much more quickly.
Having experimented with a number of different planes, new and antique, this is the one I like best:
Made by Lie-Nielson in a little factory in Maine, and based on traditional patterns, they are beautifully made, work superbly and are fully adjustable unlike some of the highly prized and more expensive antique planes made by firms like Norris.
Sanding is the easiest way to finish such wood, but a purist cabinetmaker - which I aspired to be, once upon a time - would not approve. Sanding works well but dulls the grain slightly (only very slightly, it has to be admitted). If you have a very good and well tuned smoothing plane, with a thick heavy razor sharp blade, finely set, with the narrowest mouth, it should be able to cope with much of the surface and it will look stunning. A well sharpened cabinet scraper will deal with the really tricky bits. I find oak is a joy to plane (if you dont mind your fingers going black from the tannins), and it should be easier than elm which, although soft, dulls the blade much more quickly.
Having experimented with a number of different planes, new and antique, this is the one I like best:
Made by Lie-Nielson in a little factory in Maine, and based on traditional patterns, they are beautifully made, work superbly and are fully adjustable unlike some of the highly prized and more expensive antique planes made by firms like Norris.
Nigel Watts
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As a postscript, if you are worried by the little holes and cracks in the surface, which can be a nuisance on a table or surface on which food can get spilled, I recommend you make you own filler rather than use something from a tin by taking some of the oak sawdust and mixing it with glue - preferably animal glue rather than PVAs. This gives good a colour match and has a slightly mottled texture to it, avoiding the uniform and rather artificial look of many proprietary fillers.
Penners
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Nigel - I agree with you about planing, but it should be mentioned that pippy oak can be a tricky wood to plane. The grain goes very wild around some of the pip clusters, and it's not too difficult to tear it with a plane, unless you're pretty skilled.
Scraping can work well, but also needs a fair element of skill. Sanding is, on the whole, safer.
Scraping can work well, but also needs a fair element of skill. Sanding is, on the whole, safer.