Turning burls - which way up?

[Gizmo3k]

I am about to try my first oak burls (a friend dropped off a bootload of wood with some nice stuff on it), but I am not sure which way I should turn it!

I have a couple of bits already separated from the trunk, and pretty dry. When turning bowls etc, what is the 'usual' way to turn it - is the nobbly (formerly barked) bit the top or the bottom of the bowl? Does it matter? What is most likely to expose pretty grain?

Thanks!

Alan

 

[bassethound]

Never tried it but I would have thought nobbly bit at the base.., sure someone will tell me I'm wrong

 

[Neil Lawton]

Ted is right.
There is no guarantee how far the burr extends to the heartwood, and in some cases you nay turn it away.

 

[Penpal]

Using it a lot I chose Burl caps for pens and tend to slice a piece from the burl as Neil said the grain ends further out on some, non existant on others there. The very most exciting burl in Aussie Burls comes from inside the burl IMHO. Enjoy mate.

Peter.

 

[wm460]

Place it on the ground, the side facing the sky is up.

 

[Gizmo3k]

Never tried it but I would have thought nobbly bit at the base.., sure someone will tell me I'm wrong

Ted is right.
There is no guarantee how far the burr extends to the heartwood, and in some cases you nay turn it away.

Thanks!

This is a fairly shallow one, grain looks pretty wild on the cut edge, will see what happens! Just need to work out how to cut a flat foot on the knobbly bit - part of me wants to leave the knobs as individual feet for the bowl, but I am thinking it may work well as a shallow candle holder, which would need to top face to be level with the table surface - no guarantees of that if I use the knobs as feet.