Woodturning - Biggest Burl I’ve Ever Worked With!

This was easily the most expensive piece of wood I’ve ever worked with to turn a bowl. It’s Manazanita burl and cost about $150 from a supplier on eBay. It was a monster to get turned into a basic round form because it was extremely heavy and very, very full of cracks and twists.

After casting it in epoxy resin, I got the basic shape of the bowl turned using both traditional tools and carbide tools. The problems started when I began to hollow it out and discovered that it was still very, very wet inside. I had tested it over and over again with a moisture meter before pouring the resin, but the water was hidden deep inside by the sheer size of this burl. There was just no way to get to where the water was. I put it into an oven for almost a week and still had some residual water, but I was eventually able to get the bowl hollowed out and shaped.

The woodturning techniques in this video aren’t anything fancy, just basic moves. It was the size and complexity of the piece of wood that made it so challenging that it took well over a month to get finalized.