Creative Woodworks & crafts 2005-04, страница 22

Castles, from left to right; "Eagle's Roost," "On the Plateau," and "Out of the Blue."

oy Wayne rowter

A few years ago, I bought» hook about making castles with a scroll saw. There was a great picture of a castle made from a burl cap ur top piece on the cover. While the book had some interesting designs, techniques and information, 1 was disappointed when llie author didn't take full advantage of what a scroll saw could do and. didn't give much information on burl caps. A scroll saw is the only saw that does interior cutting without cutting in. and it can do very fine turns unlike any oilier saw. As with most things, I filed the pr oblem in the back of my head. Then, last year 1 had an opportunity to buy some burl caps and 1 tried out some techniques to make bud castles my way. The following describes how 1 ended up with a house full of castles.

What are burl caps?

Bails are natural growths on the sides of many varieties of trees and usually look like a partial sphere sticking out from the side of the ttee. Tbcy can be very small to very large. When I visited Muir Woods outside of San Francisco earlier tills year, I am sure that I was one of the very few visitors who was admiring the six-foot plus burls on the sides of the redwood trees for olher than their natural beauty (1 do have a 30" saw!) In general, although burls can be harvested off hees. crafty woodsmen typically recover tbcm alter the tree is cut down for fun and excess profit, as burl wood is in extreme demand.

The outer shell of the burl often has interesting characteristics under die bark but, since most woodworkers are interested in burl wood for other purposes, these features are generally ignored. Hie exccplion is the hurl cap, or the center of the burl's skin, where slicing off more workable hoards or veneer becomes difficult. These caps are normally stripped of lheir bark and sold to wood turner or craft people to be used as bases for other work such as carvings. Stripping off the bark without damaging the features under the bark is a bit of an art. It is sometimes done using water under pressure. Oilier less intensive techniques includc soaking and drying the cap or, as my friend Jtidgar Werner has discovered, soaking the cap in water, freezing it outside in the winter and letting the cap thaw several limes (works best in a Canadian winter).

Depending on how the burl was processed, the caps can be anywhere from less than an inch to four or five inches thick at their ccntcr and up to several feet across. They can also be uniformly thick or thin on the outer edges or they can have ridges and valleys that make the thickness difficult lo judge. Bccause burls are general

ly spherical, the caps arc also usually round or oval, but they can come in many shapes. Some samples of complete burl caps are shown in the accompanying pictures (see Figs. 1-3).

Where do you get burl caps?

Since I live in a large metropolitan area, it's really not an oplion for me to head out to ihe woods, pry or cut buds off of trees, wait months for them to dry", then remove llie bade. The clue for me for source of supply was the fact that wood turners use them. Si;, off I went to Exotic Woods in Burlington, Ontario and there were the bud caps. Dozens of thein. And big, with big price lags on them, because Ihey are sold by the pound, and turners like caps with lots of wood. But in the back were a couple that fit a scroll saw profile, meaning that they were less than two inches thick at their peak. 1 bought several to play with. I have since gone back to Exotic Woods many limes and have learned that they buy western maple caps in quantity from a supplier in the western United States and gel them on a regular cycle by the box skid load. I was fortunate once to be there the week that a new shipment had arrived and was able to buy almost all of the small caps in it.

Since then, 1 have visited several other stores that cater to wood turners, including Tropical Exotic Hardwoods of Latin America and Cut and Dried Hardwoods in southern California, and have found caps at eadi. 'I here fore, my assumption is that a good source of supply is die turners section of wood specialty stores.

A second source of supply is the Internet, but it gets a iiltle tricky since you are looking for what are, essentially, the runt hurl ca|« that will fit in a scroll saw. Strictly as a test, of course, I recently participated in an auction for eleven small burl caps on eBay and successfully acquired them (like I need more) for about $5 each including shipping. However, f won't know bow useable they will be until they are shipped to me, whereas every burl that I buy in person can normally be used. eBay is belter than most Internet sources in that there are pictures and usually good measurements and weights. However, it is an audio® and normal auction rules apply: set your limit and .slick to it. The best way to find bur) caps on eBay is to go to the "Crafts" category, "woodworking" sub-category, and do a search on "burl," in order to avoid all those Burl Ives records. There are usually 200 to 300 items listed, and if yon refine the search to "burl caps," anywhere from a dozen items up are usually available. As you bid, always remember that handling and shipping are exlra and can actually be more than the purchase price. I have also found several

22 • Creative Woodworks £ Crakti April 2005