A neighbor gave me a massive oak burl, far bigger than anything I’ve ever worked with. So this is a learning experience for me.
I started by cutting the burl protrusion off horizontally, about half of the height of this piece. I then cut that in two, slicing it down the middle on the longer axis of this piece. That gave me two halves that were each about 15 x 15 inches on the flat face. Here’s one of the halves:
I removed some of the bark, to see what the burl surface looks like. This burly swirl made me think of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night, except the wood wasn’t blue like the sky!