What is Burl

[Smitty37]

I'm not new to wood...but I am new (well fairly new) to pen turning. What exactly is Burl....what part of the tree does it come from? What does it look like on the tree?

 

[toddlajoie]

Burl = Tree Warts...

Also often the root balls underground, and anywhere else the tree grows in strange shapes.

 

[broitblat]

I don't really know the answer, but I like to think of burl as analogous to a pearl. An oyster makes a pearl by coating a foreign particle that's become an irritant. I'd like to think a tree similarly makes something beautiful out of something negative (disease? pests? ??)

-Barry

 

[ken69912001]

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-burl-wood.htm

 

[concho_joe]

A burl is were there is a bud that gets damaged, and keeps on growing, but instead of growing into a limb it makes a mass.

 

[Rfturner]

Burl is when the wood forms an irregular spot in the grain. Scientist believe that the enviorment plays a big part such as pesticides, water amounts, contaminents in the water supply, components of the soil Etc. No one is exactly sure what causes it but I love to use it and God can keep making it

 

[Parson]

Just the other day I saw a lovely 3 foot "goiter" of a burl on a post oak in midtown Houston. I really, REALLY wanted to sneak back down there with a big chain saw and relieve the tree of that burl.

Boy howdy that would have made a bunch of nice bowls and pens!!!!!!!

 

[LandfillLumber]

Its basically a mass of buds that may be dormant for long periods of time.They grow on top of each other to form a mass called a burl.They can happen any place on a tree but are most often in the fist 6-8' from the ground.I just harvested some Russian olive trees that have small burl masses all up and down the trunk as high up as 15' in the air.Hope that helps,Victor

 

[Monty]

Just the other day I saw a lovely 3 foot "goiter" of a burl on a post oak in midtown Houston. I really, REALLY wanted to sneak back down there with a big chain saw and relieve the tree of that burl.

Boy howdy that would have made a bunch of nice bowls and pens!!!!!!!

You ought to see the ones on the Rice University campus.

 

[Parson]

ooh Monty, I am sure you are right. I'm glad I have not gone down there. Imagine the trouble I'd get into if I starting cutting on one of those old post oaks on the Rice campus!

 

[Smitty37]

Thank you

Thank you guys for educating me....