Burl For Scales/Don't know the wood

[cudarunner]

Hi All,

Well there is a tree that will be taken down very soon and it's right across the street from me.

It appears to have A Lot of Burls on it, but I haven't a clue as to what kind of tree it is or whether or not it would be worth my time and money to purchase some for making scales and perhaps brush handles out of.

I know nothing about trees so I hope that these simple pictures taken early this morning will be enough to identify the tree. I took pictures of the leaves and some of the Burls and Burl with the regular bark in hope that it will be enough for 'someone' in the know to identify the tree.

Thanks for looking.

[pixelfixed]

Very Cool,no clue on the type of tree,but cut the burls off and season them for about 5 yrs,might be some great stuff.

[cudarunner]

Very Cool,no clue on the type of tree,but cut the burls off and season them for about 5 yrs,might be some great stuff.

DAMN IT BILL!!!! I thought that you knew Everything about Burls!!!

Thanks for the tip about storage. I would presume since the tree is 'semi' alive that the cut ends should be coated with varnish, paint etc to seal it while the wood slowly dries

Here's the tree/the 'Green' around it is from some shrubs/not the tree/the owners had cut the broken branches up and they were rotten in the core so this poor thing has been dying a slow death and the last windstorm sealed it's fate;



Anyway hopefully someone will stumble upon this and tell us what the wood is.

[pixelfixed]

My best guess would be a maple or a sycamore

[KindestCutOfAll]

Gotta see these in a few years. Can you take pics before they are sealed for aging. I'm not a patient man.

[criswilson10]

Definitely maple.
Probably big leaf maple (acer macrophyllum) since you are in Washington state.
Less likely a vine maple (acer something I can't remember) judging from the bark.

[JP5]

Those leaves look like maple to me too. I would definitely try and get some of that to dry out for use later.

[furious]

Looks like a Silver Maple from here but I'm not an arborist. Burls should be interesting to work with once sufficiently air cured.

[vhe]

i would say some type of maple. Here's a link to a website with various maple leaves: http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/differences-between-hard-maple-and-soft-maple/

[jumbojohnny]

Looks like a Silver Maple from here but I'm not an arborist. Burls should be interesting to work with once sufficiently air cured.

It is a silver maple. Nice burls too. No need to wait for years for it to dry - green wood works too, you just need to seal it with CA to prevent warping or checking. If you get some of that tree, I would be very interested for a bowl blank. The pic in the first post showing all of the burls touching = some nice long blanks, say for a table or other flat work.