Thread: Box Elder burl brush.

I've been lucky enough to find a vendor on ebay who sells blanks of very nice wood, and he is right here in my backyard. He is from London, Ontario which is only an hour away from me so shipping is very cheap. This is a highly figured Box Elder blank I got from him, and the figuring came out more than I expected. It's been stabilized and then finished with 3 coats of oil. The knot is a big 30mm set low, at 52mm.

Thanks for looking Gentlemen!

Beautiful brush. I really like the where it looks like it's rotted.

Awesome looking brush buddy!
You will have to share your source
What is your stabilizing process?
Mike

Here's the guy Mike. He often is dry for weeks, and then posts 5-6 pages of stuff all at once, so you have to keep checking his page.

eBay

My stabilizing setup is partially home made. A legostina pot from the thrift store, fittings from the Depot, silicon cookie sheet cut for a gasket, hose from homehardware, gauge from amazon, pump from amazon, 1/2" polycarbonate from the bay, and Stick Fast resin from woodchuckers.com : Cut, Carve and Let The Chips Fly in Toronto.

Let's start at the top.
Love the 30mm knot. I want a fattie! (Just send it to me!)
The red makes the burl look like it could be flamed box elder.
Boy, that inclusion on the bottom edge gives it character!
Another fantastic brush!

Pete <:-}

Originally Posted by petercp4e

Let's start at the top.
Love the 30mm knot. I want a fattie! (Just send it to me!)
The red makes the burl look like it could be flamed box elder.
Boy, that inclusion on the bottom edge gives it character!
Another fantastic brush!

Pete <:-}

Ya Pete, it is the flamed box elder. I find the red that happens to the tree really odd and crazy, but makes for some great wood blanks. This one has red and peach blotches all through out the handle.

Whoa! That is amazingly nice eye candy for sure!


Mike

Looks great! Have you considered doing a CA finish?

Another work of art!
Great job!
I love the pattern of the wood!

Originally Posted by KCphotog

Looks great! Have you considered doing a CA finish?

I have, and I did. I've done a lot of CA finishes and have had a couple come back due to the finish cracking. That was also before I did true stabilizing, which was not that long ago. CA finish does a lot better on a stabilized blank.

Biggest problem with CA is here in Canada through the summer months, the humidity is very, very high. I make the handle in this climate, then ship it to Arizona or Las Vegas where it's super dry, the wood changes underneath the CA and it cracks. Now I have problems on my hands.

I have a huge one I did for myself where I applied CA over an oil finish and the CA finish is still perfect. Fingers crossed that it stays that way.



These days I've just been really liking an oil finish on the high figured woods, so that's what I've been doing.