Wood Burls

[sawmill]

Has anyone used these for projects and if so how were they sawed and dried. I have maybe 50 or more on cherry trees in my woods and was thinking about cutting one up on my bandsaw

[reible]

I'd be interested too.

Thus far my experience was not so great. I friend gave me a cherry burl, well it included some root and a mess of soil. I cleaned as best I could and cut the root bits off with a bow saw.

When I got it to the point that I thought I could use the bandsaw I started that. Looked a bit like I was grinding metal, little sparks flying this way and that. I finished the cut and finished the blade all at the same time.

When I looked closer I could see these small holes (worms?) about the size of a small needle. Not just one or two but all over the place. I gave up as I wasn't sure what to do but I didn't want to even think about turning it. It has sat in a box for about 30 years now, in fact I think I remember seeing it just last summer.... I believe I also have some birch and walnut in the same condition.

I'm not sure it was that way as a tree or infested later before harvest.

Ed

[sawmill]

All of mine are 5 to 6 foot off the ground I just don't know what to do with them. I was in one of the wood working stores in Grand Rapids a few years back and they had a bunch of them. They wanted a lot of bucks for them. I had one in my woods down state before we sold it and that was an oak tree and the burl was about 3 foot long

[charlese]

Having my forest experience in Montana, I know only what I read about hardwood burls. We had some good sized burls on Western larch. They were associated with brown rot which produced mycelial felts and quinine conks. The conks were valuable and became a way to get extra cash. The felts were used in logger's first aid kits to cover cuts - good medicine!

Anyway, here is some words from internet about burls.

Description[edit]

A burl results from a tree undergoing some form of stress. It may be caused by an injury, virus or fungus. Most burls grow beneath the ground, attached to the roots as a type of malignancy that is generally not discovered until the tree dies or falls over. Such burls sometimes appear as groups of bulbous protrusions connected by a system of rope-like roots. Almost all burl wood is covered by bark, even if it is underground. Insect infestation and certain types of mold infestation are the most common causes of this condition.

In some tree species, burls can grow to great size. The largest, at 26 feet (7.9 m), occur in coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) and can encircle the entire trunk; when moisture is present, these burls can grow new redwood trees. The world's second-largest burls can be found in Port McNeill, British Columbia. One of the largest burls known was found around 1984 in the small town of Tamworth, New South Wales. It stands 6.4 ft (2.0 m) tall, with an odd shape resembling a trombone. In January 2009, this burl was controversially removed from its original location, and relocated to a public school in the central New South Wales city of Dubbo.

[charlese]

Here's what some folks make from burls:

http://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/sear ... athome_001

Just like straight grained wood - you cn make anything you can imagine.

[sawmill]

Thats interesting. One of my regular customers when I was sawing lumber was married to a japanese woman and her family was here also. Her uncle was teaching him how to do wood working the way they did it in Japan. He showed me a bowl that looked like lace and I wonder if that is what he made it out of. I wish that I would have taken some pictures of it. They also had a way of using box elder by sinking it in the river and a fungus would grow in it. They then used this to turn and for other projects. When sawed it was bright yellows pink and many othr colors and when it dried these colors turn to a pastel color and remained in the finished wood

[rpd]

There is a YouTube series you might like that documents turning a vase from a cherry burl. Richard Ford - Cherry burl 01

[Ed in Tampa]

Many years ago I had a hobby of making smoking pipes. I got burl imported from many locations and many different woods. Usually grape or type of cherry was common. I also used briar wood that had to be imported. Never found a definite definition of "briar wood" other than it was light or dark and came from Mediterranean area.

In almost all the wood as I was working it I saw sparks. This occurred when I was cutting it or grinding it to shape.

The biggest danger in pipe making is a sand pit that goes undetected until you hit it and realize you now have a hole in the side of this beautiful but now worthless pipe. Some blanks were xrayed to prove they had no such sand pits. Those were the $100+ blanks that was being sold in the 70's. In the early 80's it became fashionable to produce pipes that highlighted natural defects and many favored pipes that showed bark and knots.

But I digress my point is sand is often imbedded in burls either because the burl was underground or because it was part of a pocket that wind could blow sand into.
I can't say hitting a spark of sand here and there really effected my tools. Mostly it was shocking as you sanding one minute and in the next throwing off a small shower of sparks.

[joshh]

Some blanks were xrayed to prove they had no such sand pits. Those were the $100+ blanks that was being sold in the 70's.

I doubt anyone will need to take me up on this offer but... I can xray anyone's blanks free of charge and provide you a copy of the image on CD. Obviously you cover shipping to and from.


Edit: Normally wood does not show on xray (we have to drastically lower the peak kilovoltage so the xrays don't burn straight through...like in this knife handle shown below from a trauma case I did last year.).

[Ed in Tampa]

I doubt anyone will need to take me up on this offer but... I can xray anyone's blanks free of charge and provide you a copy of the image on CD. Obviously you cover shipping to and from.


Edit: Normally wood does not show on xray (we have to drastically lower the peak kilovoltage so the xrays don't burn straight through...like in this knife handle shown below from a trauma case I did last year.).

But I believe sand does and from what I remember they provided an outline drawing and if you had little specks like little stars seemingly floating around in there the piece had a problem. You had to decide was the speck where you wanted the bowl and how deep into the wood it was. Often you could bore the hole for the bowl and remove the speck. Other times it caught you.

I had probably the finest looking pipe I ever made. Color as fantastic, shape was super unique, finish was perfect. I took it to the pipe shop to show it off. Some guy offered me twice what I paid for the burl plus $20 per hour for the 10 hours I had into making it.

I refused.

The owner of the Pipe shop brought out his finest tobacco for me to beak in my brand new creation. I light it up a small amount of tobacco to break it in perfectly. As I drew on the third or fourth puff I saw the shop owner's eye enlarge then fall in shock. Yep just under the surface on the side of the bowl was a sand pit defect. It burned through with a red glow and this is what the pipe shop owner was seeing. I went from being the owner of finely handcrafted expensive pipe to the owner hunk of wood with a hole burned in the side of it in an instant. I think that was my last attempt in pipe making using expensive burl.