What in the world is this? brain wood?

[Tripletmom]

So..found this wood in Ohio and my husband put it on the lathe (sorry no pics with bark on) and was thinking it was some kind of burl but it is very white and has all of these squiggly marks that look like a brain. What do we have and what do we do with it..
Janice

 

[magpens]

Very COOL !!!

I LOVE that grain pattern .... call it what you like !!

I've never seen anything quite like that before !!

 

[Curly]

It is an oak of some kind and people on FB, a world renowned authority , are calling the figure Spaghetti Oak.

 

[Tripletmom]

Good to know! With the quarantine going on I can get out a jar of Ragu and have a complete meal!

 

[Curly]

With built in toothpicks to boot.

 

[leehljp]

Fascinating! Pete, I did a google of spaghetti oak and came up with this:

spaghetti oak wood

I would love to run across some. Wow!

 

[Dalecamino]

Looks like some kind of fungus to me.

 

[skiprat]

I know zip about any wood, but like Chuck, the first thing I thought it was, was a fungus

 

[wolf creek knives]

I've seen wood like this that started as a burl on an Oak tree, I actually have one. However, based on the photo I think what you have is an Oak burl that is is the advanced stages of rot. That would probably explain the "fungus" look mentioned by Dalecamino and skiprat. The bowl blank I have was cut off the tree while the tree was still alive but has the same veining characteristics as this, it's just still solid. This piece looks likes it's been laying around for some time. But, just my opinion, I could be way off.

 

[JohnU]

I can't help you but I've had red and white oak that had the same character patterns. Very cool!

 

[Curly]

What, you guys don't like mushrooms in your spaghetti?

 

[Jonkou]

It's fresh cut white oak burl. After its exposed for a while it will look like this.

 

[Tripletmom]

We have white oak everywhere around here so that totally makes sense. Thanks you guys - you are so smart

 

[Charlie_W]

I saw a reference to this a while back and the tree roots had grown onto a sidewalk and this was what that looked like. I can't remember if it was called a sidewalk burl or not.