# oak burl and ants



## DKMD (Sep 24, 2012)

Dean Jordan was kind enough to mail me a gnarly looking chunk of oak burl about a week ago, and I had a chance to mess around with it a bit this weekend. Dean's turnings are huge relative to mine, so the burl needed to be cut down to my size. That's when the fun started…

After crosscutting the burl on my bandsaw, carpenter ants began pouring out of a large cavity in the middle. I danced around stomping ants for about a minute then chunked both cut ends of the burl into my denatured alcohol soaker. After soaking for a few minutes, I took the pieces out and set fire to them watching the ants come screaming out of the center of the blank in flames… What fun! 

After the alcohol burned off, I was staring at the cut ends of the blank with ant carcasses all around… What to do?
[attachment=11186]

I decided to glue a piece of walnut to the bottom of the oak blank with a thin strip of veneer in between. I left it 'clamped' on the lathe overnight and then roughed out a shape and eventually hollowed the inside.
[attachment=11187]

I thought the form looked unbalanced with just the two pieces, so I glued another piece of walnut to the top(again with veneer in between the layers) and left it overnight. After the glue set, I shaped the top and hollowed it to match the lower portion.
[attachment=11188]

Here's a shot of the piece off the lathe after wet sanding with walnut oil. It's about 10 or 11" tall and about 6" in diameter at its widest. There are things I like about it and things I don't… I'm interested in your thoughts. A special thanks to Dean for sharing the beautiful oak burl… and the ants.
[attachment=11189]


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## NYWoodturner (Sep 24, 2012)

Doc - I love it. The wood combination is great. The concept is great and the execution is better ! 

The ant story is funny until the fire part - then its hilarious... Not a fan of bugs huh ? 
Scott

Can't wait to see the finished piece


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## scrimman (Sep 24, 2012)

Yeah. Fire ants suck the suck of all sucks. 
But, I gotta ask...denatured alcohol? Why do you have a denatured alcohol soaker? We used to use that, a roll of toilet paper, and a Folgers can as a deer blind heater when I was a kid. Never knew any other use for it. Could you enlighten me? (Mentally; not like the ants)


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## LoneStar (Sep 24, 2012)

Well its beautiful first off !
If you're asking for a "critique" I couldnt tell you much about what a hollowform should be but I can tell you the way I break down a critique for the type of turning I do (pipes).
From just the artistic aspect, I would break it down by how the individual parts relate to one another. I see this as four seperate ideas making one piece.
The individual sections I see are the globe shape of the body, and the hourglass shape of the neck. Each section is made up of equal parts of dark and light. In other words, if you cut the neck off completely you would have just as much dark and light wood in each section, even though the whole piece together is 1 light section bounded by 2 dark sections.
So looking at it from that perspective, I would apply my junkyard dawg "art theory" and say two things are working against the piece. 
The first is that the dark walnut demands more attention than the light oak. The amount of both woods may be physically equal, but the walnut is visually dominant.
The other thing I see is order versus chaos. The walnut is first of all solid and orderly in its grain, color and pattern. The oak is chaotic in all its values, with large voids, running grains and sharply contrasted colors.
The crux of the matter is that there is no corresponding chaos anywhere else in the piece to match the chaotic piece of oak. The overall shape is orderly, the balance of color is orderly, and the other material itself (walnut) is orderly. 
I would introduce some chaos into the proportions of either section (top or bottom) by changing the amount of walnut. Picture the walnut section of the base 10% shorter and the walnut section of the neck 10% taller. Visually that would make the dark color less dominant over light color. Most importantly (according to my theory) it would break up the "order" of having 1:1 proportions of material in the body and neck.
Essentially, by adding disorder you are creating balance. Now the orderly walnut matches the orderly shape of the overall piece, and the chaotic oak matches the chaotic division of material.
Wait, you said "I'd like to hear your thoughts" not "Please write me a dissertation on redneck engineered art theory"  I dont know if any of that is helpful, but its the type of evaluation I give to my own work.


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## Mike Jones (Sep 25, 2012)

I like this piece a lot. It becomes more than just a "great save" by a near perfect form. all fair curves, and a neck that fits the globe visually. Might not be a museum piece, but there will be plenty of folks who will say"dibs on this"! I might have liked the veneer separation to be a little more pronounced, as an element that rather boasts the different colors and textures...like a frame surrounding a picture.

I have quite a bit of this oak burl, and I am often stumped by what to do with it.

You should be proud...it's an excellent bit of creative "design-on-the-fly"!


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## woodtickgreg (Sep 25, 2012)

I had a simaler ant experiance in my shop once. I was turning a piece of spalted maple and it had all kinds of holes and voids. I would turn a little and then blow out the dust from the voids to see what I had, I must have turned down to their home tunnel and when I inserted the blow gun nozzle in one hole I blew them out the other end and all over me!  Yikes, big black carpenter ants, talk about an unexpected surprise! Ripped my shirt off and commenced to stomping ants and doin a funny dance in my shop. :rotflmao3: I'll never forget it and now I'm a little more carefull with tunnel voids.


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## cabomhn (Sep 25, 2012)

Very cool! I really like the shape of this and I think the addition of the contrasting woods really highlights the burl.


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## Mike1950 (Sep 25, 2012)

Beautiful as always-the ant story is great.


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## drycreek (Sep 25, 2012)

Again just WOW! Beautiful work!


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## DKMD (Sep 25, 2012)

Thanks for the feedback! 

Scrimman asked about the DNA... I use it to facilitate more rapid drying of roughouts. There's some debate about whether it actually works, but I've had good results. I soak my roughouts at least overnight(sometimes for days) then wrap the outside in plastic wrap with an opening for air to circulate inside the hollow form.

Scott, it is pretty much finished except that I'll probably apply a few costs of antique oil at some point.

Lonestar, I really appreciate the feedback, and you've given me some stuff to think about. I like the 'redneck art theory'.

Mike, I agree with you about the veneer segments. In hindsight, three layers of veneer with a contrasting piece in between the two outer layers.

Greg, I don't think it's a shock to anyone that you tore off your shirt!


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## DomInick (Sep 25, 2012)

Nice save. That is Absolutely beautiful. Nice job in saving what I would have burned. Lol.


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## Kevin (Sep 25, 2012)

I really like. And even though I think Ryan is on to something with a taller neck piece, it still works just as you have it. Very creative and since I've never seen anything close you just have to say it's brave to plow new ground. I think you did and it turned up a treasure. 


I vote great job.


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## brown down (Sep 25, 2012)

:lolol: i have never ever cut a burl without some insect living in it.
i have a spray bottle of insect spray handy when i am sawing in the shop.
they usually aren't happy you cut into their home, either.

denatured alcohol sounds fun


outstanding job on the turning. oak burl is nice stuff and hard as a rock


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## dean jordan (Sep 25, 2012)

sorry about the ants. fortunately we dont have fire ants here except the ones I got from a big log of texas ebony. I had hoped there was more good wood in that burl than there was. you never know what can be inside.The last large oak burl I turned an object came out and hit my faceplate sorta hard. i thought it was a piece of bark untill I saw some movement on the floor out of the corner of my eye. It was a mouse that was very dizzy and next to dead.My little jack russel took care of it.
that piece had some very interestng voids inside that I left intact I can post a pic if interested.Of the turning not the mouse.


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## woodtickgreg (Sep 26, 2012)

DKMD said:


> Greg, I don't think it's a shock to anyone that you tore off your shirt!


Actually since I've gotten old and fat I don't take my shirt off in public anymore, scares the kids But a shirt full of ants will get me naked in a heartbeat!


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## dean jordan (Sep 30, 2012)

Tried to take some pics dont know how they will look but it is an interesting piece
Oak Burl about 14 by 16
[attachment=11382]
[attachment=11383]
[attachment=11384]


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## Mike1950 (Sep 30, 2012)

David and Dean, You 2 turn some incredible peices that most would look at as firewood. One of thes days I am going to have to trade you both out of one of those crazy pieces.


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## Kevin (Sep 30, 2012)

Very nice Dean. Suggestion for the name:

_Terminal Vase_

Anyone asks why tell them "Can't you see the poor thing has cancer?"

:rip:


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## DKMD (Sep 30, 2012)

That's cool, Dean! The inside has got a fair bit of green and purple… Is that natural or did you do something to add those colors? Also, did you do any hollowing on the piece or did the ants do it all?


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## dean jordan (Sep 30, 2012)

DKMD said:


> That's cool, Dean! The inside has got a fair bit of green and purple… Is that natural or did you do something to add those colors? Also, did you do any hollowing on the piece or did the ants do it all?


The inside is as I found it left by ants and mice. I sprayed it black with some irridescent accents .I think it is a cool affect.


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