Thread: Carving burls - is there an easier way ?

I put carving bowls into google and this site was the first one listed (as well as heaps of other how tos). Looks like a sanding flapper attachment for your grinder could be a go as well.

I'm a woodturner but occasionally use the Arbortech minicarver to create separate legs on bowls.

Yep, it's a real pain in terms of sanding. Flap wheels can be good on 2D surfaces but not 3D in my experience. The small sanding discs on the Arbortech are very slow.

You may find it worthwhile to look into the Arbortech power chisel or whatever its called as an adjunct to the wheel. Check out their website.

Mind you, you are working on big lumps of timber and whatever you use it will take big lumps of time.

Hope this is useful.

Hi Tubwaa,
Burls are pretty hard timber generally, and the grain is everywhere so carving is hard work. I'd stick with a fullsize Arbortech (the new ones are wonderful) on a decent grinder, although there are other brands that do the job (Rotary Chisel??) ....then progress to rubber backed sanding disc on the grinder. Go through from 60 or 80 grit to 240 or 260, and keep the grinder moving in long sweeps. You will use up lots of discs, as the outside wears out or burns, especially on curved work, so buy them in bulk. Once you're happy with the overall contours get in with the hand sandpaper, with elbow grease and more beers. Inside (concave) curves are difficult to work with random sanders, anything with a stiff backing, unlike the outside or convex curves.
A word of warning, leave the beers alone when using the Arbortech!!:eek: They make light work of fingers...

Cheers,

Good stuff, thanks, monsieur le bricoleur.

Yeah, carbide tipped wheels are better than the 'chain saw' type tips, and [edit: apart from that] these guys might reduce the sweat factor:

http://www.cws.au.com/cgi/index.cgi/..._id=1107145032

Not speaking from experience here mind; I just do round and round stuff ;-}

Thanks for the help guys....

well, a second angle grinder has been ordered plus the large arbortech bit, not to mention a new drill as well. Power tool collection expanding rapidly and so now I just need to get a decent work bench. Currently have burls wedged between sandbags on an oil drum which actually works pretty well !

Does anyone know if Blackbutt has a nice grain and is it worth working on ?
A friend told me it was an extremely hard wood but was not sure if the effort put in would be worth the final result re grain & character etc.

great forum for a beginner like me

thanks once again