Making a Burl Bowl

This is my first Instructable, so please forgive any of my mistakes.

I recently Stumbled across a Burl here on the farm. I am pretty sure that it is elm, witch I do not like working with. But burls are normally quite hard so it did not matter much in the end.

Things you will need.

• rotary/Dremel tool
• wood carving bit
• Carpenters chisel
• Hammer
• Sand paper 60-120 grit
• a large drill bit, I used a 3/4 spade bit
  

I had contemplated on the ways of carving it out, due to the fact that it is quite hard. I settled on useing Rotary tool with a wood carving bur for the majority of the shaping. And chisel to chip out large peaces.

This burl has a hard center, the rotary tool works but I took my chisel and hammer and chipped out the center until I could get a good start with the rotary tool.

I Started with the rotary tool going around the center over and over in till I had a ring about 1/2 of an inch deep.

One thing with the burl was that there was tracks from wear a wood worm had eaten. This made it a little harder to carve, becasue every time I got it smooth the worm tracks would show up. And I would have to take more wood away.

This little worm showed up. And it is what caused me so much work in making this. The tracks it left behind made the bowl very hard to carve. but in the end he made a tasty treat for out Chickens.

Keep carving until you end up with something like this.

Then I took the drill bit and drilled A few holes in the center. Just to speed up the whole process.

After you have the holes drilled, go back with the rotary tool and start smoothing out the inside.

I starting sanding the inside of the bowl, and I decided to not sand all of the marks out of it. I liked the look that they added to the bowl over all. I really focused on the edges, getting them rounded and smoothed out a little. I like to try to keep things as natural as they were, and not take to much of the character away.

I made this bowl for more on a novelty piece. I was not planing on useing it for food. but if you waned to I would recommend to get a food safe wood finish. I settled on useing Danish oil, witch worked fine. But I would advise not eating out of it.

If you would like to see some other things I make, Here is my website. I am still working on it but some of my things are there.
http://makesomethingepic.com/

Over all I liked how it turned out. I would like to thank every one who has looked at my instructable. I would apreacate any comets,criticism,and questions.

Caleb Stephens