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Is this a burl and what is spalted?

Started by rebocardo, September 19, 2004, 09:23:41 PM

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rebocardo

Is this a burl in white oak?



I am cutting up a large tree and it has a lot of wood that looks like this.

Also, I am cutting boards that the first couple of inches at the top of the wood is colored three to four browns, light to very dark, it looks pretty cool. I do have pictures to get developed that show it.

Someone who knows wood, said her father was a bowl turner and wood that has what looks like to me a disease that turns the outside layer of the wood, maybe 2-3 inches thick, a white and black pattern is highly valuable. In that case I have highly valuable firewood  :D  She said people actually sink wood into bacteria and water to produce the effect.

Is that kind of wood worth saving?


Ianab

Hi Rebocardo
Thats an interesting piece of wood.

It looks like curly grain, not actually burl. It's often associated with stress in the tree as it's growing and you can see how the grain changes directions in wavey patterns. It's often very pretty and intersting and hence can be worth more to the right market  :) Burl usually has even wilder grain patterns as it has given up all pretence of growing straight :D

Spalting is the first stages of decay in the wood, as the fungus makes it 1st foray into the log, but before it has had time to dissolve it into crud. It can often have intersting colours and patterns as well, and is popular for wood turning. Some people will deliberately leave logs outside and exposed to the fungus to get spalted timber. It seems more of an art than a science though ;) Also the fungus in the wood can cause an allergic reaction to the sawdust, so try not to breath too much

Ian
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

CHARLIE

You can also force spalting of chunks of wood by putting it into a plastic garbage bag (retains the moisture) and throwing in some dirt. The fungus spores are in the dirt and the moist conditions let's it get started in the wood.  You have to leave it there for about a month, but need to keep an eye on it because you don't want it to get so rotten it's punky. Birch and Maple really look good spalted.

Ianab is right on when he mentioned not to breathe the fungus. When I'm turning spalted wood, I always wear a dust mask.
Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

woodmills1

was that piece of oak cut from where a large branch came off?  That would explain the curved grain, but the curly wow I dont see much of that in oak.
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

SwampDonkey

We find alot of curl in red maple, mostly on the butt end. A good find will have it the full length of the tree. Its a specialty hardwood worth alot of $$doh in my area, with the right buyer. Ditto to what IanAB said about spalting wood.

cheers
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Bill_B

Like was said before that is curly grain. That would make some nice projects.
This bowl is cherry burl.
Bill B

iain

keep the boards in the order they came of the log    makes book matching easier later

wormy, spalted, book matched beech
 the spalt fungus has take the opertunity of following the worm into the wood and is radiating out mostly from the tunnels and keeping to the tunnel shapes as they twist about


   iain

rebocardo

> was that piece of oak cut from where a large branch came off

Yes. I have 2 x 12 x 78 of the curly wood I made from a 19w x 38h x 960L (80 foot long) branch. I have other boards where it is just at the 12-24" end of the board that came from the top of the tree from one of the branches.

Out of the very top of the tree where all the crotches were I have 24x24 blocks of the curly stuff.  8)  I was trying to make boards, but, I could not keep my saw going straight and it was taking forever to split that part of the  trunk so I could fit it on my mill, so I decided to make it firewood with a cross cut chain.

I was using ripping chain like suggested and it worked a lot better then cross cut splitting the trunks type stuff, but, I experienced my first real kick back with it. Actually set off the chain brake and gave me a good jolt  

So I decided I was finished splitting the top part with all the crotches and cut it into chunks with a cross cut chain.

Then once I started cutting it into sections I noticed it was full of the curly stuff (I was hoping it was burl)  ;) and I thought it looked really cool. The trouble was which end to coat with end sealer because after I cut it and threw it into my truck, I could not tell which was an end piece  :D

That picture of the wormy, spalted, book matched beech is interesting. I actually have thrown that kind of wood out as firewood assuming noone would want it as boards. Guess I was wrong :-)

Thanks for all the information, I guess I need to save more of the wood.

Norm

We run into pieces of wood like you showed John in the crotch areas of white oak too. It is real pretty wood but is as hard as iron to work with. The bandsaw just bucks when cutting through it and the planer is not much happier trying to plane it. Whenever we get any I stash it away for our own personal use. :)

woodmills1

For sure the jointer doesnt like changes in grain direction in oak.  It just kinda spits a big piece and leaves a dig in the edge.  Now I remember cutting a big willow on the woodmizer it it was Dang near impossible to keep the think from wanderin into the grain where the big brances were.
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

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