Anyone tried Rosewood Burl?

[Hawks Feather]

Anyone tried using Rosewood Burl for call building?  I spent a couple of hours on a piece today and think that it is the WORST of the burls (working that is)  that I have tried so far.  I had just sharpened the tools which I thought would help and possibly it didn't.  It was like that wood had teeth and it just wanted to grab hold of whatever tool I used.  I finally got it to quit catching by making sawdust cuts rather than anything larger.  I did get it shaped and have the first sanding with Teak Oil and it does look like a pretty good piece of wood, but is sure has been a pain to turn.

A little history on this Rosewood Burl.  I paid $18 for a six-inch stick of it and only got two to try (didn't get it from Al).  They looked pretty good when they arrived and I put them back into the box they arrived in so I would know where they were.  About a week later I took them out and there was fine checking started and some deeper checking on the ends.  I got hold of the guy that I got them from and he was concerned since he said that it was the first problem that he had with any of it that he had sold.  We discussed storage, humidity, heat/cold, etc. and he finally figured out that it was not something I had done to make it check.  We struck a deal where he refunded part of the money and I put CA glue on all of the checks.  It have let it set that way for about six weeks and about a week ago I cut the first stick and glued on some of the Blackwood that I got from Al on the ends.  The checking had not gone too far so I was able to cut it off and will get a couple of calls out of the stock.  I drilled it out a couple of days ago and again started watching for checking, but nothing showed up.  So today I turned it.  It does look nice.  The Rosewood looks like marble with the figure going through it and I am pretty sure that when I go to take a picture it will not show up very well.  But it will give me some more experience in working on my photography.

In a few days when I get all the oil and wax finished I will try to get a picture to post.

Jerry

[bowjunkie]

man Jerry ya got me salivating here wondering what it looks like ...comming outa your shop it can't be nothing but fantastic 

"note the sucking up ta get a chance at addin it to the collection "

[Todd Rahm]

Back away slowly Bow or else 

[THO Game Calls]

A long time ago I turned some I got from Rockler.  I found it to be very soft and like you said, hard to turn.  I ended up using a scraper for most of it.  Did not like it one bit.  The stuff I had was very light in weight.  It was pretty wood, but i am not so sure that with out being stabilized it is all that good for calls or turning.  Never messed with it after that.  There is a guy on CCO who is always trying to trade it for calls.   Says his wood is dry, but I have really bad luck buying burls over the internet so I have given up on that idea.  

It's the main reason I have been playing around with stabilizing my own wood.  Check out this site and search on stabilizng    www.bladeforums.com/

Al
THO Game Calls
www.thogamecalls.com

[bowjunkie]

Back away slowly Bow or else 

:roflmao: thats a good one Todd 



Ed

[Hawks Feather]

Al,

This does have some weight and not anywhere like the piece of spalted maple that I tried once that was much like cardboard.  I tried several scrapers and they tended to tear little chips out.  I'll keep you posted.

Jerry

[Bills Custom Calls]

Jerry I bought some off ebay.I did turn a piece of it and I found a small check in it and tried to sand it out but it seemed to get bigger so I just kept going on as if the check wasn't there. If I can I will send you a pic of it.

Bill