Burl Wood Identification

[Myrddin]

I was shopping in a furniture consignment shop today and found a slab of Burl being sold as a candle holder. Looks more like nice pen stock to me

Does anyone positively recognize this wood? My best guess is black oak Burl- what do you think? Thanks.
-Mike

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[Herb G]

Kinda looks like maple to me. At least the grain is right for maple.
I don't think it's oak. The grain is too tight for oak.

 

[Myrddin]

Thanks. Yeah I agree the lighter grain looks more like maple, but this doesn't match well to photos I've seen of Maple Burl, which seems to show more "eyes" than this...


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[1080Wayne]

Can`t tell for sure on my screen , but do the dark earlywood lines in the projection at the 2 o`clock position have open pores when looked at under a magnifying glass ? If yes , I think your ID is correct . The large open pores on the raw edge point in that direction in my opinion .

 

[Myrddin]

Hey, Wayne, thanks for the response. I'm an engineer, and a curious one , so I'm using your answer to learn something here. You want me to look at the earlywood to determine whether this is a ring-porous or diffuse-porous species of wood. Oak is ring-porous, Maple is diffuse-porous. Excellent, I'll get this under magnification when I get home!


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[Myrddin]

Wayne, if I might learn one more thing from you, why did you point me to the projection at 2 o'clock vs other areas of the Burl? Prominence of the growth rings?


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[1080Wayne]

Exactly , but it wouldn`t hurt to look at others also . From one engineer to another .