Burlwood

[heretoday]

I'm not sure if I'm spelling it correctly. Where we live there are lots of burlwood items, coffee tables and bowls especially. They're quite pretty. Anybody know anything about them?

 

[Twiceshy]

I love this stuff.

Burl Wood is the result of an abnormal growth found on trees.
The growth can be caused by diseases, bug infestations, or fungal infections.

Isn't if interesting when so much beauty can come from something so destructive?

 

[Taggart]

I'm not sure if I'm picturing what you're talking about.

Does the burlwood get used because of its contours or is the beauty in the grain of it and is it machined as other wood?

 

[heretoday]

OK, now I understand the beautiful stripey-grain markings of the burlwood.
I think they're quite highly polished to bring out the beautiful grain, not like with furniture polish, but polished by a machine.
They're quite expensive, but very beautiful.

 

[SageMother]

Here's an example of Burl Wood after it has been fashioned into a bowl. The wood's grain kind of swirls around instead of following a generally vertical pattern.

Before is is "tamed" it is knotty and bumpy.

 

[Twiceshy]

I saw a house, on T.V., that had this would as the railings on the stairs going to the second floor. I was just the gnarled wood and hadn't been smoothed out.

I could never have it in my home unless it was smoothed and sealed because it would hold a lot of dust and dirt in all of those little crevices!

 

[heretoday]

Thanks for showing those pics, SageMother. I had no idea it was so beautiful even in it's natural state.

 

[zepe]

As Twiceshy pointed out, a burl is an abnormal growth, not unlike a cancerous tumor in a human.

 

[Laughingmouse]

As Twiceshy pointed out, a burl is an abnormal growth, not unlike a cancerous tumor in a human.

It's too bad that human cancers couldn't be made into something beautiful and useful!

Somehow, I can't picture a tumor as a paperweight, though!

 

[Mike Davis]

Here is a white oak burl bowl being turned on my lathe.

Here is the finished bowl after five coats of a mixture of half boiled linseed oil and half spar varnish.