- 1). Sharpen all of your cutting tools. This is extremely important because the grain pattern of burl causes it to cut in unpredictable ways when tools aren't sharp. You may find that rather than removing a small curl of wood, you remove a large chunk by mistake. Sharp tools will diminish the chance of this happening.
- 2). Use a table saw, band saw or other appropriate wood saw to carve the larger burl into the basic shape you desire. Work slowly when you do this. The burl will not cut easily, so you cannot press too hard, which will cause the wood to heat up. When the wood heats up too much, it also heats up the saw and dulls the cutting edge, which in turn causes the wood to heat up more. This can lead to burns on the sides of the burl wood.
- 3). Chisel out the fine details of the burl wood with a sharp chisel and a hammer. The chunks you chisel out should be no larger than 1/4 of an inch at a time. If you attempt to remove more, you risk damaging the burl wood. It is far better to remove the smallest portion of wood possible, which will put less stress on the wood's grain structure and reduce the risk of damaging the piece.
- 4). Smooth the burl wood with rasps followed by progressively finer grades of sandpaper. Rasps are essentially files designed for wood carving rather than metal shaping, and should be used before sandpaper on burl wood because they remove more material. When using the sandpaper, you can generally finish the wood up to a 2,500-grit. This will leave the burl with a deep, natural shine.
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