Burl Hunting Trip

Burl Source

Burl Source

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Dec 7, 2008
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Here are a few photos from a trip I made with my boss yesterday. The goal of the trip was to find more or the really hard redwood burl. We headed down into the redwoods figuring that was a good place to get started.
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That's my boss in this photo next to a small redwood.
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Didn't find what I was looking for at the Oregon California border so we headed to the coast.

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When we got to the coast we looked up one of the old time burl guys. He had some awesome curly redwood but still not what I was looking for. This guy does a lot of carving and when I mentioned I was looking for really hard stuff he showed me a table he just finished. It was carved from ironwood. He said "I have some ironwood if you want it. It's a PITA to carve but might be good for knife handles." I didn't have to think, I just said "I'll take it". There were only four chunks weighing 120 pounds. He said they came from the estate of a dead woodturner. I think I really got lucky with this.
This is 2 of the pieces, not real big but they weigh about 30lbs each.
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Next we figured it would be best to venture into Humbolt County. There are two things you find there. One is burl, the other you can probably guess.

On the way I looked at a field and thought, "those are some funny looking cows".
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This is the area where the burl craze started back in the 70s.
 
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After a couple hours of searching we ran into a burl guy my boss hadn't seen in over 20 years. He hadn't been doing much with burl in the past several years but said he might have some I would like.

I would have driven past his place if it was just me. A bunch of old metal buildings with hundreds of old stumps. When we started digging through the piles it felt like we struck gold. I ended up with a truck load of really old redwood burl.

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It might not look like much in the truck, but wait till I get started cutting this stuff. There are several different types of redwood burl in there. You'll see. I will post more photos as I cut this up.

All in all, I would say it was a successful hunting trip.
 
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Do you need a permit? If you just walked into a forest with a couple of 20" chainsaws and started cutting redwood,maple or anykind of burl, wouldnt they beat you down,poke you in the eyes, and throw you in the klinker,--how yall do that burl cuttin??????
 
We weren't going to cut fresh burl. What we were looking for was stuff the old timers had collected in the past decades. That's where it helps to have the connections that my boss does.

If you tried to even cut off a branch in the redwood forests they would lock you up. California is a big one for restrictions and permits.
 
for all the times I have driven past that field , I never saw an Elk .
Here is a pic of another tiny redwood for those who have never been there .

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The elk are supposed to start dropping their antlers next month. I'll probably take the wife and see if we can find some sheds. If not, I'll just fill up the truck with burl again.
 
Oh yeah! About 10 years ago I took my wife up to the Klamath area to see real redwoods, as we were driving along the highway curved and the ocean appeared. She cried "I want to move here!". Such beautiful country up there.
 
poor dakota
:) i know what a load of wood like that can do to the springs

i would sure like to know about the ironwood when you get it cleaned up a bit
(not that i dont want to see the burl too)
 
I'm excited to see what comes out of those burls. I might need to get a slab cut for a project I have in mind.
 
The first piece I am cutting is something most of you have probably never seen before. This piece has a story that goes along with it as well.

Back in the 80s the guy we got this from was back in the redwoods and saw high up in some of the redwoods what looked like big cucumbers hanging from the trunk of the tree. He told one of the guys in his crew to climb up and cut some of them off. The guy cut some of the lower ones and refused to climb higher.

The boss said what about that big one there? The guy answered too high. Boss said, Fine, I'll climb up and get it. He said once he was higher than about 50 feet he started getting nervous but he couldn't back down because what he had said. Said it was a lot higher than it looked from the ground. He finally got up to it with his chainsaw and cut it loose. He said he had been keeping this piece in his shop as a reminder next time to keep his mouth shut and not to risk his life like that again.

This is a type of burl that forms as a nodule on the end of a root. Some of the Coastal Redwoods will have a root pop out high up the trunk with one of these on the end. It looked like a 3 foot wooden cucumber. It is entirely burl. About the same hardness as normal redwood so it will need to be stabilized. Some really wild looking stuff. There are now some pieces of this listed in the for sale section
Here are a few photos.
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I am in the process of cutting this one now and will list some for sale later today. Not sure what to call it; maybe daredevil burl?

Here is a piece with light sanding and then one wiped with a light coat of oil. Cool stuff! It looks darker in real life. Flash washed out the photo a bit.
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That is an interesting story and an unusual piece of wood. Thanks for taking the time to photograph your trip. You live in a beautiful section of the country.
 
Love the pictures, the story and the wood. Keep the photos coming. I have some money all ready to spend...
 
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