burl?

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Jan 10, 2010
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This burl hunting thread was in the back of my mind as I walked about the property today and I encountered this beast.

Burl? Are there scales in there??? Probably too far gone... but I shall take a slice tomorrow.

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what is it? it looks walnut are maybe -can it be- a black ash.lol--marekz--but seriously what is it--did you cut it at the bottom of the tree?
 
I didn't cut it. It was left here from previous owners. I have no idea what kind of wood it is yet... I might have a better idea when I cut into it.

I also found this:

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It's a lot more solid than that other piece. I will post some pics of the slices tomorrow if they are interesting.
 
That is not burl, it's a "cat face". the tree suffered damage and grew that shape around the damage trying to "heal". It's like a tree scar.
 
which one? both of them? I thought the second one looked more like burl wood... well, it really won't matter until I cut in and see. Pretty cool looking wood formations anyway...
 
Nothing in your pics is burl. Cutting into them won't change that...but...maybe clicking your heels together three times might? hahahahahah...sorry..couldn't resist that. :)
 
What is burl or where is it on the tree?? is it the cancer looking knots you see on a tree from damage or what?
 
better let somebody else answer that. Apparently I'm not a good judge. But... I've always thought they were the big knots caused by some kind of disease. The knots I photographed were probably caused by something else...

But here is what I got after slicing one of em up... Looks and feels like red cedar to me. And beautiful grain! Not sure if I will be able to make scales out of this... but I will be able to make something nice after I 'stabilize' them... light duty cutting boards? Or... I dunno... what do you folks think about using this stuff for handles? Obviously I'd had to stabilize it...

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I saw some cedar handles on a few folders that Ray Kirk made. His website is rakerknives.com but I couldn't find anything there with cedar. He had some wood stabilized from a very large old tree that a storm blew down near his house. It was really nice wood.

I was able to find one picture in a thread here on BF. The knife in the first post of the following thread is cedar.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6069377&highlight=cedar+handle#post6069377

SDS
 
Even though the wood is not a burl it still looks interesting. You should be able to make something fun from it. A couple of the pieces might work to carve a shallow bowl. If you use the minwax wood hardener be prepared for the nasty fumes. After you take the wood out of the hardener you still need to give it a week or so to fully dry.

It is fun to experiment with unusual pieces like this. Sometimes I will take a piece and just sand and finish it without making anything other than a natural sculpture. My wife has pieces like that all over our house as decorations. When we have company they get as much attention as the finished projects I make. Good luck and have fun.
 
Yeah... I do carve bowls and I'm dividing this stuff up into blocks for knife handles, a piece for a bowl, and some polished up flat pieces to sit stuff on in the kitchen.

I'm gonna cut out a few scales for a handle and try that method I referenced before. I'm one of those guys that's always dragging wood like this back home so I'd like to see if I can learn to stabilize....
 
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