Slicing and Dicing a Burl?

Re: Slicing and Dicing a Burl?

Roger Chandler

I think that from the pics it looks like cherry burl to me.....fairly common occurrence as far as burls in the eastern U.S. I have had several that look very similar to the one you have here in the pics, but without seeing it up close, it is hard to be definitive on that species.

The post office does have flat rate boxes that allow up to 70 lbs for a flat rate shipping.......I have sent wood across country using that. Shipping was a little over $20 back about 5 years ago, if I recall correctly.

I know if I were to have this burl, I would use it as a natural edge piece, and keep the eyes and burl figure flowing up to the natural edge. Sometimes that works and one just has to see what they can get out of it.

Good luck.

Re: Slicing and Dicing a Burl?

John K Jordan

Yikes, that's hard to know without Superman vision. I've cut cherry burls similar in size and got almost nothing but sometimes it's great. Even with 2' across you sometimes get only a little band of burl. Sometimes what looks like a burl is really where the tree healed over a dead branch stump and what's inside is mostly trunk, bark inclusion, and rotted wood. Sometimes it is a pleasant surprise. All different.

If I were the recipient, I would ask him to cut it or find someone to cut into it with a few sizes of flat rate boxs in hand and see what is inside. (preferably someone with experience) If it looks worth it they can use their own judgement and trim to fit. If there is not much more than pen blanks it might make some good firewood, unless you turn pens of course.

JKJ

Re: Slicing and Dicing a Burl?

robo hippy

I would guess cherry as well. I have seen two types of cherry burl. One has all the little spikes on it like what is common for the big leaf maple burl. This seems to be rare out here in Oregon. The other type looks like lava flows with lots of voids and pitch pockets in it, which didn't make for good solid pieces. This piece you show here looks like the lava flow stuff. We don't get much wild cherry out here, and most of what I have seen is orchard or ornamental. IF that is a wild piece, it might be the good stuff, but I can't tell from the pictures.

You could cut a bit off the ends, and bi-sect it down the pith, which might give you a better hint of what is inside...

robo hippy

Re: Slicing and Dicing a Burl?

Brad Vietje

Hey David,

First -- Black Cherry almost beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Looks to me like you have a crotch with a burl coming mostly off one side (?) If so, you'll have one pith on the big end, and two smaller "targets" on the other end.

If it's a burled crotch piece, I think I'd cut right down through the 3 piths, so you'd get a "Y" on the exposed faces, with almost all the burl on one half. You could then trim the log segments of the burly side until it fits into the USPS box.

Now, with Christmas exchanges coming up, its probably a pretty good time for me to be a real PITA and raise my standard objections to shipping green wood anywhere, given how easy it is to spread insect- and fungus-borne diseases, but I don't know of any bad stuff (like Emerald Ash Borer, Asian Long Horned Beetle) typically found in Black Cherry, so I think it would be fine. You may not want to let the USPS know you're shipping raw, unprocessed wood in that box, though. They frown on that and I believe you could be fined -- significantly.

Safe spinning,

Brad Vietje

Newbury, VT

I would have said it more strongly

GaryG in MD

Brad, I'm glad you raised the flag. I was about to do it myself.

Sending green wood with bark on from one location to another is often illegal, and for people who love trees, it's a highly questionable practice. ...GG

Re: I would have said it more strongly

dick guggenheim

Yes, it is a cherry burl. It was given to me about 12-18 months ago by a co-worker. Since that time, it has been sitting in my garage, in CT, where, periodically during the winter, I have a wood stove going about 8' from where it has been stored.

After that amount of time and the environmental conditions to which it has been subjected, I could be wrong but I doubt there are any nasty critters left inside of it.

(Note#1: This would not be the first piece of wood I have shipped to David in Hawaii.)

Note#2: If need be, I can bake the burl in a wall oven I have in my garage which I use for preparing the wood I use in the construction of banjo rims. Typically, I bake maple for 12 hours @ 400 degrees to prepare it for use in rims. My feeling is that any critter that survives that level of heat deserves a second chance at a normal life.)

Re: I would have said it more strongly

Brad Vietje

Golly, I appreciate any efforts to kill little critter beasties before shipment, but 1) I don't think its an issue with Cherry, and 2) I think that would crack the wood all to hell and back. Whatever checks it already has you'll have to accept, but no sense making it worse.

If you were shipping Ash, I'd be all upset!

Safe spinning,

Brad

my experience...

GaryG in MD

I turned a small cherry branch burl into a pedestal cup almost a year ago and finished it with an oil.

I've been displaying it on my kitchen table on a "runner".

A week ago, I found fresh sawdust under the rim.

I found the new hole about the size of a pinhead and filled it with CA.

I have only two words to say: "They Live!" ...GG

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Have lost a couple of cherry

Mike Brazeau

I am not sure that cherry is immune from problems. We have a number of black cherry on our small acerage and have lost two over the last five years to some sort of fungal infection. At least seem to be a fungus. Trees are not that old and 10-12" in dia. Die down starts at the top and works down branches.