I may have found a gold mine!

J. Hoffman

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jan 1, 2011
Messages
1,781
My neighbor is a timber buyer. He did the removal of some timber from my property last summer, and he supplied us with firewood when we ran out this last winter. I had asked him to keep an eye open for burls. He stopped by last week and told me to come over and take a look because he had some burls for me to look at. I was able to go over there this morning. The first thing he did was give me this Black Ash cap that he had cut off of a tree headed to the mill. The cap has some really nice burl and some nice curl figure. He then brought me into the back . He had an 8'x20" yellow birch log with a large (18"x18") burl on the side. He offered to either cut off the burl cap, or sell me the whole log. I took the whole log. He also had two 8' Ash logs that each have about 20 softball size burls on them. He has another yellow birch log that is hollow, but still has a solid burl on the side. He then also had a Cherry burl that is about 24" in diameter. He said that all but one of these logs are only good for pulp, so he will sell them to me for pulp price. He said he is willing to just cut burl caps off of logs in the future for me, or he is willing to sell me the whole logs. If he just cuts the caps off, he will give them to me, otherwise I have to pay the price of the log. Either way, it will be a lot of fun to see what he comes up with. He tells me that by the end of summer I will be begging him to stop bringing me burls. I really doubt that will happen. :D
 

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Keep us posted! It will be interesting to see how much is useable and how much ends up wasted (not a criticism or prediction- I'm genuinely interested.)
 
I have one custom with a black ash burl handle , nice stuff !
Don't waste it as the emerald ash borer is killing the trees bigtime !
Is he waxing those pieces immediately ? He should !!
 
My plan is to cut out the burls when I get them and then seal and store them. I need to let them dry a liitle before sealing them because it has been raining here and they are drenched. I'll take pics of what he brings me.
 
Wow you are going to be having alot of fun with that!
 
I had a similar deal about 12-13 years ago with a friend cutting firewood.
One day he shows up with a trailerload of oak, and Maple burls also some
very good crotchwood-we rolled my bandsaw outside and cut all day, after
sorting during the years of drying I ended up with 2 steel garbage cans of
pretty primo stuff (oversize blocks) I won't ever run out.
Ken.
 
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