What is Burl?

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louisbry

louisbry

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I know what a true burl is and understand that blanks obtained from the burl are referred to as burl. What I do not understand is whether is is correct to refer to figured wood or crouch wood as burl, if it looks like burl. I feel like many IAP members misuse the term burl. What do some of you think?
 
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Burls are abnormal growth on a tree that can happen on the trunk, limbs, or roots.


Burl Wood is wood that comes from a Burl.


Anything else is not a Burl or Burl Wood.
 
I'd say, if you can't tell from the pictures of the wood then you would just have to trust the buyer. For that matter how do our suppliers know the wood they are getting are burls unless they cut the burls off the trees themselves. I'm sure some of suppliers buy from a source that already cuts the blanks and they have to trust that person so we should trust them.
 
There is a lot of unintentional misinformation from the sellers of wood pen blanks. A lot of figured wood is called burl. I see a lot of folks offering "root burl" blanks that are simply just figured wood from the roots or root flare of the tree. They are not burl. Sure, there is some root flare true burl but most is not. I do not know this for a fact but I think burl is going to have some type of eye figure of some sort, not just wavy grain.
 
I am not aiming to discredit any clams of wood being burl but just curious as to how others interpret burl. To me it is a irregular growth on a tree that is tumer like in appearance. I have several such "burls" cut from hack berry trees that do not seem to have any "burl like" figure in blanks cut from them. I have not cut into them very much because I do not want to lose a bowl opportunity.
 
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Sorry but as a guy who deals in alot of burl there is no fast solid answer to what "burl" looks like as all species have a little different presentation. I agree that the term is overused and shouldn't apply to high figure created from crotch and such. That said not all burl creates the prized eye look. I can give you two pieces of brown mallee that look identical from the exterior and when you open them up one can have the craziest eye formation and the other will just be high figured. Just because one burl created less figure doesn't make it "not burl."
 
Here is a pretty good definition of burl from Wikipedia. I know, I know, wikipedia is not reliable but this definition seems pretty accurate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burl

Also here is the best definition of burl that I found on the internet:

:confused::confused:
What is burl and what is blurwood definition? Question to that with the form, them the specialist who now can be used the tree end of detection and that and them of rear of the plant of substituting is drawn up mainly for their images. Because there are no many conditions, the section of the digital reformation where this price remains partly high. That has the retail end where those average most for the digital tail ended model were moved the film, it forms, it is. If it is outmoded generally is done, if as for this it is possible it is small with the best method to make work from the same it continues from the equipment more as another example of the taste of the flora specialist.
:confused::confused: Source: http://www.burlwood.org/whatisburl.html

What the heck did they just say above? :eek:
 
Nolan,

I understand that not all burls have eyes. I guess what I was trying to say is that many do.

Also, not all growths on trees are burl. Take pecan for instance. I have been around pecan and have actually scoured over 500 acres of native pecan grove with a pecan expert looking for pecan burl. We found many "growths" that we cut, only to find out it was a limb that broke off and healed over to make the growth. I certainly do not consider this to be burl. We never did find anything that I would consider pecan burl. This is even after milling 2,000 bf of pecan lumber. I did find lots of nice flame, curl, and spalted stuff, though.
 
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I agree 100% and that is how it is overused. I will say that if you want a rule of thumb is if you take the bark away and the surface area of the piece in question is very disfigured (like points and bumps) then it is burl.


MesquiteMan said:
Nolan,

I understand that not all burls have eyes. I guess what I was trying to say is that many do.

Also, not all growths on trees are burl. Take pecan for instance. I have been around pecan and have actually scoured over 500 acres of native pecan grove with a pecan expert looking for pecan burl. We found many "growths" that we cut, only to find out it was a limb that broke off and healed over to make the growth. I certainly do not consider this to be burl. We never did find anything that I would consider pecan burl.
Click to expand...
 
Nolan wrote:
Nolan said:
... Just because one burl created less figure doesn't make it "not burl."
Click to expand...

While I completely agree with this statement, I believe the real issue in Louis' OP is this:

Is ... it correct to refer to figured wood or crotch wood as burl, if it looks like burl?
My answer is a definitive NO.

I don't know what raised this discussion but it's similar to the discussion
we had long ago on whether it's okay to call an unknown source of Olive wood "Bethlehem Olive wood."

Further, I'd suggest that it's flat out wrong to refer to wood as Burl unless the supplier
KNOWS for a fact the wood came from a true burl.

I own a roughly 20" diameter Redwood burl cap; it's all eyes.
I have a slice of redwood that's AAA birdseye. I don't know if it's from a
burl yet the wood looks similar.
My supplier wasn't sure;therefore I can't call it a burl.

Here's how I look at it:
My word is my bond.
My credibility makes me a better vendor than an unknown vendor.
IF someone selling me something is willing to stretch the truth, they're putting my credibility at risk.
IF I find someone doing that, it's the last time I deal with them.

So:

Can a burl lack figure?
Sure.

Does figure make a burl?
No.

Can you call something burl because it has lots of figure, therefore it likely came from a Burl?
No. Just call it highly figured.

:wink:
 
GaryMGg said:
My word is my bond.
My credibility makes me a better vendor than an unknown vendor.
IF someone selling me something is willing to stretch the truth, they're putting my credibility at risk.
IF I find someone doing that, it's the last time I deal with them.

So:

Can a burl lack figure?
Sure.

Does figure make a burl?
No.

Can you call something burl because it has lots of figure, therefore it likely came from a Burl?
No. Just call it highly figured.

:wink:
Click to expand...


Well said!!
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by louisbry
What I do not understand is whether is is correct to refer to figured wood or crouch wood as burl, if it looks like burl.


jkeithrussell said:
Crouching wood is angry and may be about to attack. Use caution.
Click to expand...


Be careful Keith!! I have battle scars caused by being a grammar/spelling policeman!!!!!
:beat-up::beat-up:


:rolleyes::biggrin::rolleyes:
 
louisbry said:
I know what a true burl is and understand that blanks obtained from the burl are referred to as burl. What I do not understand is whether is is correct to refer to figured wood or crouch wood as burl, if it looks like burl. I feel like many IAP members misuse the term burl. What do some of you think?
Click to expand...
I think it makes a plain ole piece of wood sound better and adds a few dollars to the price of a figured blank! :wink:
 
I have been called burly several times in my life. If I were to cut my arm off and it didn't have eyes in it, could I still be burly????? :-D
 
Also here is the best definition of burl that I found on the internet:

:confused::confused:
What is burl and what is blurwood definition? Question to that with the form, them the specialist who now can be used the tree end of detection and that and them of rear of the plant of substituting is drawn up mainly for their images. Because there are no many conditions, the section of the digital reformation where this price remains partly high. That has the retail end where those average most for the digital tail ended model were moved the film, it forms, it is. If it is outmoded generally is done, if as for this it is possible it is small with the best method to make work from the same it continues from the equipment more as another example of the taste of the flora specialist.
:confused::confused: Source: http://www.burlwood.org/whatisburl.html

What the heck did they just say above? :eek:[/quote]

I think he said if you can sell it for more it's burl:biggrin:
Reads a lot like some "scholarly" books I've read written by PhD's wanting to show how smart they are.:)
 
Curtis, I think what that last definition of what is burl, was translated from Hindi, to Farsi, then to Chinese back to Yiddish then to plain Psycho babel. In other words the meaning got lost in the translations :befuddled:
 
Did you look to see the domain name of the website? Heck, if they are going to have a domain name of Burlwood.org, you would think they would have a descent description of what it is!
 
This is a pretty good link to a large number of different types of figure. It's a little more extensive than I would have made it. IMO you could reduce it down to just 6 or 7 categories: curl (including fiddleback, tiger, etc), burl, crotch, quilt, pomelle, birdseye, and "figured" (which would include bee's wing, mottled, etc).

Additionally even though a piece of wood may have some amazing or very striking grain that doesn't mean that it's "figured". "Figure" is usually, though not always, independent from the grain pattern.

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/_figure.htm

Jason
 
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