Burl walnut?

[Craig21901]

Was enjoying an afternoon of splitting when all of the sudden came across the nastiest, gnarliest, ugliest hunk of wood I've ever seen. The splitter didn't so much split it as it did compact and squish it. After running it through about a dozen times at every possible angle, the dang thing finally split open. It was just about that time my favorite neighbor (who's knowledge of just about everything never ceases to amaze me) stopped by, saw what I was doing, and told me it was burl walnut. He said it can be quite valuable under the right conditions, but it was too late by the time he got there I had it mostly reduced to chunks of firewood.

Any thoughts as to whether or not this is burl walnut and what causes the grain of the wood to develop this way?

 

[BrokenToys]

It sure looks like a burl to me; i wonder what it looked like when it was still all a tree. If I remember; a burl is just a deformed part of a trunk or branch.

Burl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In a nice length it is great for woodworkers to make stuff with; like boxes, furniture, and things of that nature.

Fiddleback [Maple] now..you come across that and you will be sitting on some real valuable stuff for musical instruments or other fine woodworking.

Flame maple - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[PA Plumber]

That would make a purty...whatever. Gunstock comes to mind, actually.

I would also guess it is burl Walnut

 

[Whitespider]

Yeah, that's burl, or highly figured walnut. Several things can cause it, such as injury and cankers, almost always there will be a bit of burl in every walnut crotch. If, and only if it can be seasoned without splitting open, and if, and only if it's strong enough, it is highly sought after for making high dollar custom gun stocks... which may sell for several thousand dollars. But not all burl is suitable for gun stocks (or anything else) because most of it will split wide open during seasoning, or will just flat break when subjected to stress. Usually English Walnut produces the best (read strongest) burl... American Black Walnut produces very little "usable" burl (usable for making things requiring strength, that is).


addendum; Almost any dense "hard" wood can develop "burl"... I find it quite often in Bur Oak. Rather than tearing it all to shreds with the splitter I just chunk it up with the saw.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

I run across some in my business (trophies and plaques). Beautiful stuff, and very unpredictable. Hard as a rock too. A mdrill bit will just dance around on it.

Makes nice figure in gunstocks, but never used in stress areas such as wrists.

 

[oppermancjo]

I ran across a large burl while walking the woods a week ago. It was on an Ash that had tipped over. One of the largest I have ever seen. I'm guessing 2-3 feet across. Any idea if that is worth something?

 

[CWME]

They are not really worth something until they have been dried, processed, and actually get $ in hand. If you could dry it out and cut it into 3/4x3/4x6" blocks you could sell these for pen turning banks. Some of the bigger ones I have turned bowls with. The burl pen blanks were going for $5-6 a piece back a few years when I was into making pens. Great stuff for pens or other small turnings.

But again, until i is dried without splitting or getting covered with mold it is just another piece of firewood.

 

[oppermancjo]

A brief search of Ebay indicates that there is potential for burls to be valuable but pretty much only as previously said when they are turned into blanks for pens, bowls, knife handles, etc... When I included Ash in the search, it returned mostly Black Ash. Pretty sure that's not what I have.

I checked for walnut as well and that is definitely valuable as well. Not sure it would be worth the time and hassle though. Maybe I'll cut that one out and throw it on CL. Never know what dummy you can get to buy stuff from you that way...

 

[Ayatollah]

I believe burl is used for making pipes too, but not walnut. Cherry for one. Walnut burl has been turned into a few wall clocks

 

[sunfish]

I sell kiln dried Black Walnut burl blocks, 1-1/4" thick x 2" wide x 5" long.

$10-$20 per block. For knife handles...

Have sold around 2000 blocks in the last few years to knife makers.

I burn walnut, But Not the Burl... :msp_smile:

 

[oppermancjo]

I sell kiln dried Black Walnut burl blocks, 1-1/4" thick x 2" wide x 5" long.

$10-$20 per block. For knife handles...

Have sold around 2000 blocks in the last few years to knife makers.

I burn walnut, But Not the Burl... :msp_smile:

How do you go about processing them into blocks? Noodle it with a chainsaw? Band Saw? Mill? Hand Saw? Jedi Mind Tricks? For $10-$20 a pop it might be worth my time to do the processing...

 

[sunfish]

How do you go about processing them into blocks? Noodle it with a chainsaw? Band Saw? Mill? Hand Saw? Jedi Mind Tricks? For $10-$20 a pop it might be worth my time to do the processing...

We have a band saw mill and a couple band saws in the shop. We cut the crotch (fork) and any other burly parts of the tree and process that on the mill, then the boards are cut up in the shop. My brother does the processing and I buy the blocks from him.