Burl

[8thsinner]

I just noticed tonight, theres a big bottom burl sticking out of a silver birch right opposite where I work, Does any one know what this stuff is like to work with, or would any one want any.

I am thinking of taking my sabre saw to it late some night, it is probably big enough for 2 dozen knife handle slabs or a couple of bowls.

 

[Brocktor]

you have to season it

its very hard to burn a hole through and to carve, unless u have some good picking tools

 

[Dave Budd]

if it's free then it's ALWAYS a good idea to try

but do make sure you season it (and seal the cut ends), burrs are a swine for splitting

 

[billycan]

I cut a huge burl of the side of a silver birch that i felled and its was far too holey and soft to be of any use for bowls or knife scales, so maybe best not to leave a huge wound on the side of a tree??

 

[wanderinstar]

Something I have always wondered about. Could you cut a burl of a living tree, without felling it. Would it damage the tree?

 

[leon-1]

Tree surgeons do remove burls from trees, it is supposedd to be quite a specialised job to remove a burl without damaging the tree.

Burls can be quite deceptive, they can look huge and yield very little usable wood, as one of the other guys mentioned, it will require seasoning for a good period of time, they are quite difficult to work (mainly due to the way the grain works in a burl, all over the place).

Personally unless the tree was due to be felled anyway I would not remove it.

 

[weaver]

I have one on a Cherry tree that I hope to harvest someday. No hurry though.

 

[8thsinner]

Thanks for the replies, thats a help indeed.
Theres a tree surgeon in th epub tonight, I will ask him if I would be able to do it, otherwise It looks like I might have to leave it alone.
Only forever going to work now it's going to bug me seeing it.

Oh well

 

[bambodoggy]

I am thinking of taking my sabre saw to it late some night, it is probably big enough for 2 dozen knife handle slabs or a couple of bowls.

Make sure you're not seen or you could end up on a charge of causing Criminal Damage!

I personally don't have the skill to remove a burl from a tree without causing it damage, however, I have removed them off trees and then pollarded the tree to a lower level and it then grows back.

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[Stew]

I have one on a Cherry tree that I hope to harvest someday. No hurry though.

If you're only intending to take the burl off that, I wouldn't bother. From my experience there's a deceptively large amount of bark on a burl and that doesn't look like much to be bothered with on it's own.

If you're taking the whole trunk down it could work well though....

 

[C_Claycomb]

I wouldn't bother either. The birch we have growing here isn't like the artctic stuff. I took several burls from freshly fallen birch near me and the quality of the wood didn't make it worth the trouble. Ther was enough in a couple to make a handle, but not two...too much bark and too many inclusions. The burls were 6-7" diameter but cleaned up much smaller. The wood looked great, but was very soft, not rotten soft, but it was a pain to work, hard to finish, and lacking in strength. It also took a couple of years to season, blocks cut before then moved all over the place. The only real option would be getting it stabalized, but the burls weren't big enough to get decent size blanks.