TheBurlSource.com Russian Olive

The formation of Australian burls is not unlike those from anywhere else on earth. Traditional thought believes that the tree is reacting to some form of stress. In almost all cases, something, whether its nails, bullets, fire, insects or weed whips has allowed some virus, fungus or some form of disease to penetrate through the trees protective layer (bark). Once that happens the "burling" process may begin if the tree has a genetic predisposition towards burls, (which is often the case with the Aussie Eucalypts.) In Australia termites are thought to be the main "culprits" Very often the burl caps that we receive have varying degrees of decay and rot in them. My suppliers remove the soft unusable material but often leave an unsightly, decayed, although firm remnant. Depending upon your use of the burl, this need not be a deterrent. If you were going to remove this area of the burl while carving or turning a form anyway, then a real surprise may await you. I personally carve or turn those pieces that my clients reject (I've got to recover the cost somehow!). Most of those in Skips Gallery are fashioned from those rejects. Below I have a group of pictures showing the progression of a particularly sorry looking piece I recently "Arbor Teched" out.

This is how the burl started on my bench. The piece weights 43 lbs and is 26" long, 17" wide and 4 1/2" deep. The rotted areas went 3" deep. At least the termites did some of the work for me.

About 20 minutes later by using the Arbor Tech I had removed all of the decayed material and was in sound wood. The cracks continued but did not appear on the exterior of the burl.

A few more minutes of work had some more of the brilliant sapwood at the perimeter exposed.

An idea occurs to me, and I do a quick sketch before starting to carve.

About 15 minutes with the Kutzall Extreme Wheels started to give the design some hope.

Some more refinement to the form and a finer grit of Kutzall Extreme Wheel and its almost ready to start the sanding process. (Seemingly endless sanding process!)

The cracks have been filled with a black epoxy and the piece has been sanded to a 120 grit at this point.

The sanding is complete and ready for its oil bath. As you can see the termites did little to harm the final color or figure.

Just out of its dip in the oil, the color and figure are stunning. Now the finish must cure a few days before its trip to the buffing machine and all that is left to do is to sign it!