How Best to Cut Spalted Birch Burl?

[AlaskanHunter]

I was given two birch burls recently. They seem quite dry, and surprisingly light for white paper birch. According to the friend that gave them to me, they were mostly dead when cut, and have been drying for 2+ years. Both have been cut in half. One of the burls seems to have a fair bit of spalting. I think these are pin burls?
How can I best cut these to maximize wood quality? I'm pretty sure that I need to have this stabilized, right? I'm really hoping our resident burl experts will chime in with some pro tips.

 

[Lieblad]

For the most part on stuff like that I cut basic slabs by tablesaw with a narrow kerf blade.
If I am trying to cut a wierd shape to maximise optical properties or such, I hotglue the piece to a scrapwood what can ride against the sawfence.
Then again, might use my bandsaw too. Its kerf is very thin...

 

[AlaskanHunter]

For the most part on stuff like that I cut basic slabs by tablesaw with a narrow kerf blade.
If I am trying to cut a wierd shape to maximise optical properties or such, I hotglue the piece to a scrapwood what can ride against the sawfence.
Then again, might use my bandsaw too. Its kerf is very thin...

I'm more wondering which cut angles will give me the best odds of getting a few great pieces of wood.

 

[Greenberg Woods]

I need a picture of the bark surface.

If it's an pin burl, you want to cut perpendicular to the plane of the buda to yield a dense eye grain.

If it's a grain burl it doesn't matter so much and cut to maximize interesting spalt and figure

 

[AlaskanHunter]

I need a picture of the bark surface.

If it's an pin burl, you want to cut perpendicular to the plane of the buda to yield a dense eye grain.

If it's a grain burl it doesn't matter so much and cut to maximize interesting spalt and figure

Here's one with bark on:

And here's one with bark off:

 

[Greenberg Woods]

Looks like you have a bit of pinning, bUT not much.

I would cut the long way for the spalted areas to maintain those attractive long lines of black and then perpendicular to the buds on the Burlier section

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

If a burl is big enough, I cut it in half first, and then cut one of those halves into quarters. This allows me to look at all three planes to decide the best patterns. I may end up cutting the pieces on different side to get different looks, or cut it all one way. Once the first half is cut up, I then do the second half as slabs based on the previous results. I usually let the halves sit for a few months before cutting into quarters, and let the quarters sit for a few months before cutting into slabs. I let the slabs sit for 3 months before cutting into blocks.

On your burl, I would slab it along the cut you already have. Make the slabs 2" thick (1.75" if it is well dried already). Let it dry for 6-12 months and then cut the blocks out. I prefer to individually mark the very best blocks at whatever angle they need to be to show the best pattern. I then mark the rest of the slab to get other blocks. I figure the order of cuts to get then out, and cut them with the bandsaw. You could get a few more blocks by merely slicing it into long strips, but I would rather get 10 fantastic blocks from a slice than 15 nice ones.

You can make the slabs thinner if you don't use 1.5" thick blocks, but make them at least .25" thicker than you want the finished block to be after stabilizing.

Wood like yours really looks good with dying and stabilizing. I like red, tan (brown), and green. Colored scales are popular for kitchen knives.

 

[Hengelo_77]

good looking wood!
I like birch

 

[AlaskanHunter]

Last night I cut up one of the smaller pieces that I thought looked the least promising. I don't have a bandsaw, and there aren't any in my town, so borrowing one wasn't an option. I figured that I'd start with the least useful one and experiment on how to cut it. I ended up cutting as deep as my tablesaw would allow, and finish the cut with a handsaw, using the tablesaw kerf to keep my handsaw cut straight. I sanded the cut slabs to 120, and hit with a light clearcoat to see the grain better. I gotta admit I was a little stunned at the beauty of this "scrap burl" as my friend called it.
What is a good block dimention? I have done mostly full tang knives so far, but I'd like to start dabbling in hidden tangs as well, so I'm looking for a versatile size. I'm thinking 2"x5.5"x1.5", does that sound about right?

 

[kuraki]

That does look nice. 5.5" x 2" x 1.5" will make just about any kind of knife you want.

 

[Robert Erickson]

Wow, looks like some great stuff you got your hands on!