A neighbour on Rebecca Lake called Brian on Thanksgiving weekend about a dying yellow birch tree that had been cut down. It had huge burls that went half way around the trunk. The family had always loved the tree because of the rounded protuberances and they called it the "bum tree".
It took three hours to cut the burl with the chainsaw. Brian worked around the defects, punky and rotten areas to find the pieces which were solid and had potential to be turned.
The slabs and chunks have interesting grains, colour and bark inclusions. Our neighbour kept the largest flat slab to make a table and Brian has pieces which will eventually be beautiful bowls and platters.
The drying process for green wood takes a couple of years. To ensure that the wood dries slowly and doesn't split, Brian coats the cut surfaces with a waxy sealant and stores them in a dry area. Patience is a virtue for a wood turner.
That is really cool to see the burls before and the process of what they will become! Thanks for sharing the photos.
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