Look what walked into my shop today

And given to me for free!!! It's niced to be loved.

Nice slab of Cherry Burl.




What to do with it?????

would make some KILLER fretboards!!

 

I wouldn't envy you if you decide on fretboards. Inlaying and slotting cherry burl would not be high on my list of fun things to do, haha.

EDIT: looks like a really nice catch though.

 

That's a nice chunk of wood you got there. How stable is burl. Could you make a neck from it?

 

I don't know about a neck, there's some vioding in the burl (if that's the correct term)

 

I'll bet, Alex. Amazing grain structure in this stuff!

 

Fingerboards? Think of the TOPs you could get out of that!

 

Definitely! Beautiful slab!

 

I'm going to attempt a top, but first some fingerboards...



The burl is not very stable, has a lot of voids in it. Not loving it...

Just a side note....this stuff smells amazing when cut!! it's like inscents for God sake. My shop smells like a head shop.

 

Not very stable? Lots of voids? Sounds a lot like burl to me...

 

It's gonna be scary, using this for a top.

 

Burl carved tops aren't fun, but dammit, they're pretty after the fact

 

If you're done one, please let my pick your brain...I'm gonna need all the help I can get, brother.

 

I did one in Buckeye burl last year. Swore I'd never do another burl carved top, but lately I've been wanting to do another...

 

How did you stablize it for carving?

 

ive heard CA glue works. but that smell and vapor would just kill me. What about epoxy?

 

I'm thinking I'll need something that won't yellow with age. Epoxy is out...how about Z-poxy? does it yellow ??

 

I use CA + wood dust to fill voids. The fumes suck, yeah, but its effective.

 

Very much so.

 

Hope that is really, really dry before you start doing anything with it. I have a piece of redwood burl here that was going to be used on a SC design. It was dry when I got it and has been loitering here now for nearly two years. Recently I thought about re-purposing it because I scrapped the SC for now and was looking at it for ideas when I noticed micro-fractures near the glue line.

Two areas have this happening now:

http://i.imgur.com/Nx3HFmp.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Bwt93KL.jpg

At this point I will not use it for anything guitar related. Might get sliced into veneer for a box or something on that order. Not really sure why it started doing this because it has been in a climate controlled room and it doesn't get dry down here - ever (high humidity). Kind of sucks because it is a tremendous looking burl that reminded me of an eruption.