Burl trumpets?

[Meleagris gallopavo]

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So I typically am not attracted to burls much as I prefer straight grained wood.  I have run across a burl that caught my eye recently that I’d like turned for a trumpet.  I’m aware that these are usually stabilized but I’m not sure what the process is.  Can someone tell me about burl wood and stabilizing them?


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[mmclain]

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Even stabilized by the best people in the business they can still break if not built correctly. 

[Meleagris gallopavo]

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So I’ve read a little on stabilizing wood, and from what I gather the dense wood burls don’t normally need stabilizing compared to the burls from less dense species.  So I see a lot of Honduran Rosewood burl trumpets, are Honduran Rosewood burl blanks stabilized prior to turning? 


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[HookedonHooks]

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The particular species of wood plays a factor but not as much as the individual piece of burl wood you plan to use. Some are tighter than others by species but being an unnatural growth of the tree there's no specific formation they follow. For example, Osage burl is highly sought after in the duck call world but they vary a lot; some are tight and perfect as they lay, others are loaded with voids and need stabilized and filled with resin before turning. Some guys like to stabilize any burl they work because the outer appearance of the blank isn't always what's on the inside, and burl can blow up easy.

Osage Burl, various Rosewood Burl's, Yellow Cedar Burl, and Amboyna Burl are all very common for use in duck calls and would probably make a fine trumpet. The right piece wouldn't necessarily need to be stabilized, but when working with burls it's never really a bad idea. Some of the softer woods even stabilization can't save. 

[ol bob]

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Its more about the type wood than being a burl, a very hardwood like ossage or cocobolo burl will not  need stabilizing, but something like buckeye always needs it.

[misfire]

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Most burls do not need to be stabilized. But, the process goes like this: I have a tank that I set the wood in, pour liquid acrylic stabilizer until it covers the wood plus half an inch. I then seal the tank and hook up a vacuum pump to it and crank it up. It draws all the oxygen out of the wood and infuses the pores of the wood with the acrylic. Once the wood is fully saturated, I then remove the wood, wrap in tin foil and bake in the oven for several hours. The the blank is ready to turn. I do that with all buckeye burls and some other woods that normally would be too soft to make a trumpet out of.

[Meleagris gallopavo]

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Thanks folks.  Was just making sure burls from dense woods don’t need stabilizing. 


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