Unlike live burls which tend to grow on the trunks and branches of a tree, these tend to gown near the roots and stump. The most common burled wood you’ll see out in the wild is live burl, which typically grows on the trunk or branches of trees, these a pretty small compared to some of the others.Īnother kind of burl that you might come across is known as a crown burl. In fact, there are a few types of burled wood that you could encounter if you’re out and about looking at some trees (people do different things in their spare time). Thankfully, these days there are more stringent protocols in place to protect trees that produce wood burl and the land they’re grown on.īurls are generally seen as growths on trees, but they are a little more intricate than that. Enthusiastic (and considerably brave) poachers made their way onto federally protected lands and made off with quite a bit of burl wood, which left loads of trees in dire straits.

Unfortunately, it’s at this stage that all of the poaching started. As you can imagine, their workpieces grew in popularity and soon everyone wanted their own one-off burl wood workpieces, which turned out to be pretty popular in the 1970s all the way into the 1980s. In the 1900s close to the end of the second industrial revolution, big lumber suppliers needed redwood for furniture making, but they only needed the straight-grained wood from the trunk of the tree which meant that large chunks of burl wood were simply thrown onto the garbage heap.įortunately, woodwork enthusiasts and artisans soon saw that the unique nature of this wood could be used to make some really interesting workpieces.

Like most superheroes, burl wood has its very own origin story, and much like most superhero origin stories, it starts with a tragedy. Wondering which types of trees grow burl? Here are a few of the common tree species that tend to develop burl wood: Wood burl can be found on the surface of a tree’s trunk, close to the soil at the root of a tree, or underground connected to the tree’s larger root system. Does this mean that wood burl is only found on the surface of the tree? Nope. So, they’re found where a tree has been hurt or if there is any change in the tree’s natural growth cycle. Burled wood is extremely durable and doubles as a defense against critters looking to make the tree their home. When a tree is pruned or encounters foul weather it will do its best to compensate for the loss of an appendage either by re-growing it or by sealing off that section with callus tissue in the form of burl wood. Why do trees grow burl wood instead of new branches or roots though? Well, it’s sort of a defense mechanism. This condition causes the wood to grow irregularly and creates some pretty cool grain patterns on the interior of the wood.

Burl wood can form as a result of things like damage, stress to the tree, fungal infection, viral outbreak, insect infestation, or simply a genetic disorder in a tree or family of trees. Why does this happen? Well, pretty much for the same reason that we as human beings tend to develop bumps or growths that are considered to be irregular. To make it a shade simpler, burled woods are little (or big) knotty growths that form at the base of tree stumps as a result of bud tissue that has failed to sprout. This means that burl wood isn’t a different species of wood entirely, but rather an offshoot of existing tree species that have developed over time. What is burl wood? It’s a bit strange, but essentially, burled wood is a particular grain of wood that can be found on a number of different tree species. 4.1 How Do You Identify High-Quality Burl Wood?.4 Can Burl Be Removed From a Tree Without Damaging it?.2 What Are the Different Types of Wood Burl?.

Burled maple wood