burl removal help

[ClimbinArbor]

my old man has got his eyes on a couple of burls for turning. told him to wait and let me ask for some help. ive really only SEEN like 5 of them in my life, and havent removed one.

from what ive read it is a delicate procedure, and if done wrong could have serious complications to the host.

if anybody has any burl removal experience please help lol.

 

[Frank Boyer]

I've done many on land clearing projects. I have used a crawler/loader/backhoe tractor and an excavator. Way to expensive to use for small projects. Look for some one clearing land and they might give you a burl and load it for you. It is very expensive to take burls to the landfill in my area. The largest one that I've done was a 15' redwood stump. It took almost a whole day. I was able to move it over 40' to get it out of where a house was being built.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

No matter what you do it will be a flush cut. Burls are pockets of weirdly dividing meristem, or clumps of dormant buds. There is not collar or protection zone.

When i take then from a log, not a trunk, I will take as much for the trunk wood as I can so that I have some trim on the blank.

As an arborist turner, i think it is bad form to "harvest" burls from live trees. If it is on your own property....

 

[ClimbinArbor]

As an arborist turner, i think it is bad form to "harvest" burls from live trees. If it is on your own property....

agreed! thats why i was asking for help. ive heard of burl removals on live trees but never actually seen one...

we just got back from the river bottums with a nice one off of a hackberry that was 90% dead. was in a thicket thats soon to be cleared for pecan ranching. was only about 2' burl but should make some nice wood once it cures.

if there are any burl surgeons out there, i would still love the info...

 

[(WLL)]

No matter what you do it will be a flush cut. Burls are pockets of weirdly dividing meristem, or clumps of dormant buds. There is not collar or protection zone.

When i take then from a log, not a trunk, I will take as much for the trunk wood as I can so that I have some trim on the blank.

As an arborist turner, i think it is bad form to "harvest" burls from live trees. If it is on your own property....

:agree2:

 

[(WLL)]

agreed! thats why i was asking for help. ive heard of burl removals on live trees but never actually seen one...

we just got back from the river bottums with a nice one off of a hackberry that was 90% dead. was in a thicket thats soon to be cleared for pecan ranching. was only about 2' burl but should make some nice wood once it cures.

if there are any burl surgeons out there, i would still love the info...

a small burl can be kicked off ,but there is no way to chop a large burl of a tree without causing major damage to the tree

 

[ClimbinArbor]

yeah we are really only looking for smaller ones, nothing of any great size around from what ive seen. although im sure theres a huge one hiding somewhere lol.

went thru about 80 acres today and all we found was the poor old hack berry, leaders rotting off and dropping bombs on me as i notched lol, was an interesting drop to say the least, had good hinge wood tho. all the rot had only moved about halfway down, one poor live limb. and like i said it was in a thicket full off ash and pecans, was real interesting when it went, leaders flew everywhere lol.

Edit: i cant remember where i was reading this at, could have been a beranek(sp) book, but i could have sworn that someone was having success removing HUGE burls on live trees. see if i cant find it

 

[ATH]

Nobody said you CAN'T remove large burls off of live trees...but several suggested that you shouldn't remove them if you want to keep the tree in good health and structurally strong.

There is no way to do this without exposing large wounds in the tree to decay fungus leaving the tree with no mechanism to compartmentalize this decay.

 

[ClimbinArbor]

Nobody said you CAN'T remove large burls off of live trees...but several suggested that you shouldn't remove them if you want to keep the tree in good health and structurally strong.

There is no way to do this without exposing large wounds in the tree to decay fungus leaving the tree with no mechanism to compartmentalize this decay.

yeah this is definently the general consensus. one that i had figured to be the case all along, thats why i asked lol.

been looking for where i read up on that at, still cant find it.

 

[046]

got an eye on several oak burls deep in the forest ... 3+ft diameter ... major damage to tree if they ever got cut off.