Burl Removal (living tree)

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

gabrielo

Member
Jul 29, 2012
14
0
germany
Hey folks,

today i spotted a nice beech burl while spending some time outdoors. I would like to remove it to make some nice things from it. The burl itself covers about half of the circumference of the trunk. But i am concerned, if the removal would cause too much damage to the living tree. If i would cut it off, of course i would seal the cut to prevent infections. Would be glad if somebody could give me advice.
 

swright81076

Tinkerer
Apr 7, 2012
1,702
1
Castleford, West Yorkshire
As far as I know removing a burl from a branch is OK (pruning it properly etc), but from a trunk is a no no as it would cause a lot of damage and even kill it.

I may be wrong, and there'll be someone with more accurate info along soon.

touched by nature
 

Setantii-Tim

Member
Feb 5, 2013
12
0
Fylde Coast
I would not remove such a burl if its on the main trunk and is approaching 50 percent of the width of the trunk. The tree could suffer badly and may not heal properly, beech are prone to rotting back on large wounds, smaller wounds would callus over in time and the tree would not suffer much. The modern thought is not to seal cuts any more as it actually stops the tree healing naturally.
 

treebloke

Tenderfoot
If you like the burl then visit it from time to time but leave it on the tree. There is no way you can seal a cut of this magnitude to prevent infection, at the very best you could use a fungicide which would mainly favour the company that made it.
 

Oblio13

Settler
Sep 24, 2008
703
2
67
New Hampshire
oblio13.blogspot.com
Any wound on a tree over about 3" in diameter will never heal. Whether or not you paint it with something, a vector for disease and parasites will be opened into the trunk and a long, slow process of decay will begin.

But maybe that Beech is a tree you can cull for firewood, or maybe it's already unhealthy and its crown is competing with others. Every tree is its own forestry management decision.
 

gabrielo

Member
Jul 29, 2012
14
0
germany
Well, it is not a whole burl but a large on and three smaller ones. I also thought about cutting only the small ones or even only one of them to hurt the tree as few as possible. But even the small ones are larger than 3" in diameter. I think the only chance will be to ask the landowner/forestry dudes if the would cut the tree anyway as I don´t want to seriously damage the tree. Thanks for your info so far!
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE