Working with Buckeye burl

[Chris Richards]

Just really after some tips regarding working with this wood. I purchased a top set on a bit of a whim, just wanting to try something a bit different for my next build... I hadn't read-up anything about the wood beforehand and was quite surprised at it being almost as light as balsa wood!

The pieces I have are about an inch thick, being this thick my thought is that I could slice them to at least get two tops from the piece. Would this be a wise move? I have read that I should apply some sort of hardener to the wood before working with it, should I do this before I try and slice it?

Like I say, never worked with this before so any advice would be much appreciated...Thank you!

Chris

[Clay Schaeffer]

If you can find a clear penetrating resin and coat both sides it might help keep things together when you slice it in half.

[David King]

As long as it isn't totally rotted it should slice up just fine as is. Use a new blade, preferably a thin kerf one so that your book match actually matches. Coating it with penetrating hardener can bite you in the arse later when you try to finish it and get very uneven penetration and blotchiness in the finish. You want to do that as a last step when you have it all sanded perfectly. You'll want to raise the grain several times to eliminate any impacted grain and then blast all the dust out of the grain or rub it out with an eraser. That way you'll maximize penetration and hopefully the penetration will be more or less even. I'd use a slow setting epoxy and keep applying it with a brush as it soaks in over an hour or two (as long as your epoxy is workable). Spread your epoxy out in a metal paint tray after you mix it and keep it chilled with icepacks if you want to extend it's working life. It will absorb an extraordinary quantity of epoxy that way which is exactly what you want. It will also darken the surface quite a bit so test it out first to see if you want it that dark. If you don't then try something else that doesn't penetrate so much but has a very hard surface like a polyester resin (surfboard topcoat).
Lots of folks have used CA but I find that the buckeye is too basic and causes the CA to react too quickly before the CA has had a chance to penetrate resulting in very splotchy looking wood. If you must use CA use one of the thicker formulations that sets up slower so it has a little time to penetrate first.

[Chris Richards]

Thanks very much for the replies... I am a complete novice when it comes to this wood, something I didn't expect at all was how light weight it is and how fragile it feels... I still intend to slice it, being an inch thick, should I slice it into two or three pieces, so I guess I'd end up with three pieces about 7mm thick or two pieces 12mm thick... Would 7mm weaken the wood too much?

Thanks again
Chris

[David King]

Chris every piece of buckeye is going to be different. Can you break a piece of toast in half? Yes but so what? If you are unwilling to take chances then I would urge you to put this piece aside and gain some experience with woods that aren't as challenging to work with. If a piece of wood is particularly weak, you would probably want to use less of it and more of something else that has some integrity. You haven't actually told us what you intend to build so it's hard to know what to tell you. What I can tell you is that buckeye is pretty uninspiring sonically. It is definitely not a tone wood.

[Chris Richards]

Hi David...

Thanks for your advice, it's invaluable..... I am just after building a straight forward solid body electric and using the buck eye for a top which will be flat, so apart from the top everything is straight forward. Indeed I can see that the buckeye would be pretty much hopeless as a tonewood so I'll probably end up doing something like a 35mm mahogany (or similar) body with a 10mm top.

I've been building guitars for a long time, mainly solid or thinline and have built an archtop so I'm ok with carpentry skills, I just wanted to try something a little different so chose to use the buckeye... Not wanting to make any fundamental mistakes it's great to be able to ask questions (on here) before I start.

Thanks
Chris

[David King]

Well with a sharp blade, buckeye is pretty effortless to slice up. That said it is generally cut from a rootball and there are often big clods of dirt and perhaps even small stones embedded in the burl. These can dull a bandsaw blade in short order. Inspect the wood carefully. Flatten the side that you'll be running against the fence, set your fence parallel to the cut line of that particular blade on that particular day and scribe a line all the way around the piece where you intend to cut through. Start the cut and pull out to check that your blade is indeed tracking on your cut line. Saw another inch or two and repeat until you hit something bad or make it all the way through.
Once you open it up, sticker it and let it dry out throughly with enough weight on top to keep it flat. Once you're ready to use it run it through a surface sander starting with the fresh cut side down until you get your two halves very close to the final dimension. At that point flip them over and skim the fresh cut side until you have sanded off all the saw marks. Your book match should be nearly perfect (if you were intending to bookmatch -it's what everybody seems to want to do with buckeye.)

Gluing could be tricky as the buckeye is so porous it will want to absorb all the glue resulting in a dry joint. Every glue I can think of will have drawbacks so probably best to use what you are most comfortable with and go for it. Just use plenty of glue and get the clamps on in a hurry. Use a caul board with some cork lining or high density foam rubber to even out the clamping pressure and prevent dents. A vacuum bag might be perfect for this but I don't know, it might just suck all the remaining glue out of the joint too.

It might be a good time to inaugurate a new roundover bit or at least touch up the edges of your current one. Sanding goes very quickly through this stuff so watch out with the 80 grit. You really need to get every scratch out of the surface as any deep scratches will show up as black lines in the darker areas. Sand to 320 or even go to 600 and then back to 320 to find scratches. You won't have any adhesion problems with finish.

[Chris Richards]

Hi David

This is great advice and will be invaluable when I get started... Which shouldn't be long now, I've got a couple of guitars to finish off then I can get started. I'll be sure to post pictures...

Thanks again
Chris

[Clay Schaeffer]

"Gluing could be tricky as the buckeye is so porous it will want to absorb all the glue resulting in a dry joint. Every glue I can think of will have drawbacks so probably best to use what you are most comfortable with and go for it. Just use plenty of glue and get the clamps on in a hurry."

"At that point flip them over and skim the fresh cut side until you have sanded off all the saw marks. Your book match should be nearly perfect (if you were intending to bookmatch -it's what everybody seems to want to do with buckeye.)"

One way to get good glue adhesion is to use epoxy and precoat the porous surfaces to be glued, and then lightly sand and glue with epoxy. If you are doing a book match, then having coated the outside surfaces prior to sawing would put them to the inside of the glue joint where they would likely not have any effect on finishing.