Every so often luck comes your way and in this case, it was in the form of a phone call from a man who works in a lumber mill. Burls are cut off when preparing trees to be sawed into boards at a mill. Often burls are discarded or burned but fortunately they were set aside until the pile became unmanageable.
Burls are the irregular growths that occur spontaneously on the sides of trees when exposed to trauma, insects or stress. Most people would think of them as ugly and unwanted parts of the tree but to Brian, they hold the mystery of the forest, just waiting to be discovered on the lathe. Brian bought the whole load of 300 seasoned burls and has started to turn a few of them.
The burls came in all shapes and sizes and were primarily yellow birch and maple from the Muskoka area. Brian sorted through the pile, found a dry spot to store them and chose a few to begin to turn on the lathe. The Muskoka Autumn Studio Tour is two weeks away so he wanted to have a few ready for sale.
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| Yellow Birch and Maple Burl Bowls |
The unique characteristics of each burl determine the shape, colour and grain of each bowl. Brian loves the challenge of finding the extraordinary within the discarded piece of wood, allowing the inner beauty of each bowl to be revealed.
Limberlost Woodturning is open for the Muskoka Autumn Studio Tour on September 22, 23 and 29, 30 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm and we would love to see you. For more information, go to:
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| Maple Burl Bowl with a Live Edge |
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