Question about Burl

[Sir-diealot]

Friend of mine son has a tree that I believe his father said is Red Oak or Maple (Sorry my meds) that seems from the description to have a very large burl about I believe he said 3-5 foot off the ground and I was wondering if that is any good for making calls or does it have to be a curtain kind of tree. I will be able to add pictures to this tomorrow, but just wanted to get an idea if it is even worth bothering with.

I guess he had a guy stop and try to buy the tree off of him for making bowls but from what I understand from reading here the price he offered him for the tree is not even what the burl is worth, but I am pretty ignorant about such things to be honest.

[ol bob]

Burl works great but it takes a long time to dry.

[Sir-diealot]

Burl works great but it takes a long time to dry.

Are there any woods with burl that are worthless or worth more? I did find this which was a very interesting read, but did not answer that question for me at all.

https://philholtan.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/how-to-harvest-and-sell-burls/

Oh and thank you for the reply Bob

[ol bob]

A few such a buckeye are two soft and need to be stabilized I have never found any that don't work fine and some of the nicest calls I have ever made were from oak that I found at a place that was selling firewood.

[Sir-diealot]

A few such a buckeye are two soft and need to be stabilized I have never found any that don't work fine and some of the nicest calls I have ever made were from oak that I found at a place that was selling firewood.

Thanks for the information, charging camera batteries so I can add pictures tomorrow.

[Sir-diealot]

The weather prevented us from getting pictures today, will try again tomorrow. He did say the tree is Red Oak for sure though today.

[M,Yingling]

red oak should make for a good call if its a true burl it should have some pretty crazy spaghetti like grain to it   ,,, my have some eyes also but never realy seen any with eyes ,,, burls on a tree are a crap shoot on their worth never know till u crack them open ,, then they my be full bark ,ants u name it ,,,, when cut trim out side to find the best grain then cut blocks accordingly  ,,, i fully seal the blanks when cut with wax except maybe small spot in middle ,,, lets dry and sit back and watch it warp lol   ,,, and while drying   if i see any cracks forming will drop a little ca in them seems to help

[Sir-diealot]

red oak should make for a good call if its a true burl it should have some pretty crazy spaghetti like grain to it   ,,, my have some eyes also but never realy seen any with eyes ,,, burls on a tree are a crap shoot on their worth never know till u crack them open ,, then they my be full bark ,ants u name it ,,,, when cut trim out side to find the best grain then cut blocks accordingly  ,,, i fully seal the blanks when cut with wax except maybe small spot in middle ,,, lets dry and sit back and watch it warp lol   ,,, and while drying   if i see any cracks forming will drop a little ca in them seems to help

Thanks Mike, I am yet to see it as it was raining today, this seems to be a popular way to cut it from a few things I have read, is this what you mean? Also what is CA?

cherry-burl-and-forklift by Sir-diealot, on Flickr

Oh by the way I don't remember what this crow call was made from, do you recall?
IMG_0679 by Sir-diealot, on Flickr
IMG_0682 (2) by Sir-diealot, on Flickr

[M,Yingling]

That call was cherry burl      CA is super glue found in most dollar stores ... yes see most are cut like that and trim the bark off round outside parts see what grain looks best and start blocking from their

[Sir-diealot]

I have not been able to get to the house to take pictures yet, but apparently the burl is 6 foot in diameter. Saw one in another tree when out trapping yesterday, but it had a big old coon hole in it.

[Sir-diealot]

I finally got the pictures of the burl, sorry it took so lone. I uploaded a video to Youtube so you could see the entire size of it but it is going through the edit software right now, so you will have to wait until later for that.

IMG_0783 by Sir-diealot, on Flickr
IMG_0782 by Sir-diealot, on Flickr
IMG_0781 by Sir-diealot, on Flickr

[Sir-diealot]

Here is the video to help show how big this burl is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRnOJrz7sms&feature=youtu.be

[Weathered-Branch]

That looks like oak burl. I made a few crows and a yelper out of some my uncle gave me that turned out really nice..

I can't give an idea on what it's worth but it looks sizable so probably a pretty decent bit, and it looks like it'd be worth digging to check if it's even bigger. Burls can extend underground, and it looks like the ground is swollen too so a decent chance it extends underground. Could just be the rootball, oaks do that, but it'd be worth checking

You may be able to google, there are guys that drive around to harvest nothing but burl and they may offer the best price.

I wouldn't mind having that sitting under the overhang at my workshop drying, but I'm beyond broke right now...

[Sir-diealot]

That looks like oak burl. I made a few crows and a yelper out of some my uncle gave me that turned out really nice..

I can't give an idea on what it's worth but it looks sizable so probably a pretty decent bit, and it looks like it'd be worth digging to check if it's even bigger. Burls can extend underground, and it looks like the ground is swollen too so a decent chance it extends underground. Could just be the rootball, oaks do that, but it'd be worth checking

You may be able to google, there are guys that drive around to harvest nothing but burl and they may offer the best price.

I wouldn't mind having that sitting under the overhang at my workshop drying, but I'm beyond broke right now...

Thanks for the information, he was offered quite a bit but turned it down, he has promised me a chunk of it if ever the tree were to go down. I did not know that the burl could go underground as well, I thought maybe the tree was beginning to tip because of the bulge in the ground, did not know about the other information you provided. Thanks.

[B Rogers]

Wow. That is a nice one. I've turned several calls from burl and cut several as well. I assume this one is still standing?