Oak Burl & Resin Bowl

Woodturning an Oak Burl with Resin and Crazy Spaghetti Grain!

I got four oak burls earlier this spring, two small ones and two large ones. I sealed the cut sides with AnchorSeal and set them aside for a few months. I decided to take the smallest of them and see what I could do. I mounted the cut side to the faceplate and started roughing. I was able to get a partial tenon and turned it around in the chuck with tail stock support. My plan was to rough turn the bowl as usual and put it in the dishwasher kiln to finish drying, but I wasn’t comfortable taking the tailstock away so I took as much as I could out of the center, coated in AnchorSeal again and set it to dry. I knew that I was going to use resin on this project so I wasn’t too concerned about it cracking.

Unfortunately I lost all of that footage, so the video starts with prepping the blank for resin casting by “baking” any remaining moisture out in the turkey roaster.

This burl had some crazy spaghetti grain and I’m super happy with how it turned out. The bowl is finished with a friction polish made of shellac, denatured alcohol, and boiled linseed oil. As this is both oak and a burl, I recommend it be used only for dry goods as the wood can be quite porous.  Th bowl is 5.5″ diameter and 2″ tall.

Care Instructions: Wipe with a damp cloth and mild dish soap if necessary. Do not put it in the dishwasher or completely submerge under water.