"
What Is Burl?!
Discussion on the nature of burls
- by Mark Lindquist"
from his book Sculpting Wood:
Contemporary Tools & Techniques,
published in 1986."
Burls are perhaps the most
misunderstood and mysterious
material in the woodworker's
realm. Most woodworkers and
suppliers who use these strange,
unpredictable formations have
very little idea of how they grow or
what causes them. And, although
burl wood has long been prized for
veneer, lumbermen and forest
Page 2
pathologists
trying
to
p r o d u c e
straight and
sound stock
for the massproduction
l u m b e r
industry have
a l w a y s
regarded the
burl as a
nuisance. But I
find burls to be
an extremely rich source of material for sculpture
and turned and carved bowls and, most
importantly, an inspiration for discovering new
philosophies and approaches to woodturning."
Burls are protuberances on trees that come
in all shapes and sizes. They are known
colloquially as burrs, bumps, knobs or gnarls, and
scientifically as galls. A burl is not a healing over
of a broken branch, but an irregular
outgrowth, usually of fruit buds which have
only partially developed. These buds grow
slowly in thickness rather than length,
www.burlhunter.com