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Burls Wanted
I am always on the lookout for highly figured
hardwoods and burls. If you think that might be
interested in something that you have access to, please contact
me with the details. I could either pay cash for the item
or we might be able to work a trade. I have very high
grading standards for the woods that I will use in my nets so I
can't use any material that shows only average figure, I
need to have material that is of the highest quality.
What is a
burl?
Burls are very unusual yet very exciting (at least to
confirmed woodaholics like myself) growths that are found on a very
small percentage of trees. No one is quite sure as to what causes
them but they do tend to form at a point on a tree trunk that has been
damaged whether by insects, frost, lightning or even a bullet from a
hunters rifle. I have a White Ash burl that when sliced into slabs
for my use revealed a bullet that the band saw mill had exposed.
It was from that bullet that you could see the burl emanating.
Burls occur on most species of trees but tend to be more common on
certain species. The wood inside of a
 burl
looks nothing like the figure that you will find within the trunk of the
tree that the burl is cut from. The figure can be spectacular if
cut properly and
when used to make the handle of one of my nets I think you'll understand
why I like to refer to burls as 'Gems of the Forest'. The
burl at left is a small specimen from a White Birch tree in northern
Minnesota. I am able to harvest Black Ash burls locally along with
the White Birch, White Ash and to a lesser extent Cedar. I get my
Maple, Walnut, Myrtlewood and Redwood burls from the West Coast |
