Woodworking Projects - Unique Birch End Table

My next woodworking project:
I always wanted to do something with burled wood. I very rarely get my hands on it. This large Birch stump had one large burl and several smaller ones on it. Instead of cutting them out and discarding the rest of the log, I wanted to integrate them all in one object. The stump itself has many interesting cavities and depressions in it, so I felt it would do the tree injustice if I only took the burls.

The wood has tons of beautiful features, like black lines from spalting, green and red spots from other fungi, brown streaks from pieces of cambium, leftover pieces of bark and the chaotic burl grain. When I applied the first coat of oil, my jaw dropped to the floor, I never could have dreamed it would look this good (you can see that later on in the vid)

This table was made in Hortus Haren, Netherlands.

Useful websites:
http://www.saburr-tooth.com/
EU, UK, NL website for ordering Saburr-Tooth equipment: http://www.chainsawcarvingtools.eu/

Main dutch Chainsaw Carving forum: http://www.carvingtoolshop.eu/forum/index.php

WoodCarving Illustrated message board: http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/forum/
My WCI Gallery: http://tinyurl.com/yfvoyq7

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[oxfordmoon]

Very nice job! I have many trees here in Maine and some have burls on them...mostly on the red oaks. I always wondered what I could come up with for a beautiful product. Now I know. By the way, could you be so kind and let me know how removed the core from the bottom? After plunging the saw all around, the base, I am wondering how it was released. My guess is that you had to chisel out chunks at a time. Thank You for a great video!

[Mueiwark]

@oxfordmoon Thank you, and observative! Getting the center piece out took some time. After the plunging I made more cuts, only this time in triangular patterns so I was able to remove the core in pieces:

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If the above doesn't really help, I'll try again to explain ;)

[waldodesteghe]

great piece!! looking at the top there are some small cracks (like it btw) but my question is: how do you keep it from splitting all the way and dividing the table in two? Is tung and lemon oil really all you put on the top. thx and keep making these more than beautifull pieces

[Mueiwark]

@waldodesteghe Thank you! It depends on the type of wood how bad the cracking will be (or 'bad'...I rather like cracks, they make it look like wood, not plastic!) For example, Oak and Beech will surely crack because they are tough woods and don't give way. Birch, Maple and pine are reasonably soft, and will crack not as bad. Still, to minimize all-to-big cracking I have removed 90% of the corewood, releaving stresses. Using oils help also, making the wood dry slow and steadily.

[darkinmysilence]

Pretty spectacular. a mossy chunk of stump turned into a gorgeous table. nice.

[Mueiwark]

@darkinmysilence Thank you :)

[nrevels1]

The tung and lemon oil brought out all the beautiful golds and sepias --I would have a tendency to put a piece of glass as a top piece ---I also liked it when you first took off the bark I thougt it was finished then ---what a wonderful piece of wood and great work

[angelljwa]

The beauty of nature......... Gotta love it....WTG

[moverfoni]

@harguyMetel89

The problem with that guide is that its

full of crap and garbage! They skip over

many important parts and their diagrams

were unclear and confusing.Until I found

this famous program online at:

TopWoodWorking.info

All my problems seems to answer thru it.:)

[lux4x4]

Very beatyful! sorry, did how many disk for grinding use?

[stubbywebb]

amazing.. you ever thought about wood burning with this? i do wood burning. and you are giving me some killer ideas! if you like, look up genreofstubby.us to check out some of my work. i would love to work with you on this. amazing! :)

[sween187]

Thats a very nice piece there, keep up the good work

[duff835]

@oxfordmoon Well best of luck, I live in Poland Maine, I'm 17 and just started woodworking a little over a year now. I do a large amount of lathing but have starting doing some other kinds of projects, its expensive to get into but if what you make looks nice you will make a little money selling it.

[oxfordmoon]

@duff835 , I am in beautiful Raymond, Maine. I haven't started this type of work, but I am setting up......but I have a long way to go.......meanwhile my trees are getting bigger...thanks for asking.

[duff835]

@oxfordmoon Haha I live in Maine and been doing this kinda work. Were in Maine do you live?

[lestad32]

Beautifull work...god bless your hands!! big hug man!!