From time to time we have large implementations at work.  These types of things usually start at midnight on Saturday, and go until some time Sunday, late morning or the afternoon if there are issues.  Starting around 3:00 am, a series of conference calls start every hour on the hour to get a status of the effort and address any concerns that are happening.  That means pretty much all night, there’s 15 minutes of work, followed by 45 minutes of waiting.  During the down time, I usually go to the shop and work on something, just to stay awake and alert.

I was looking around for something to turn and found a piece oak that had a burl that had grown on one side of the wood.  A burl is like a wart on a tree, and inside the burl, the wood gets really confused on how it’s supposed to grow, so it usually has a combination of swirly grain and bits of bark that get trapped as the tree makes the irregular growth.  I figured I’d spin it up and see what it looks like.  This is the final product, about 4″ across and three inches tall.

This is the side that had the “normal” wood.

This is the side that had the burl growing.