# Mystery Burl.....



## Schroedc (Jan 7, 2014)

So a little back story on this burl, Apparently it sat in a corner at a local university's art department for between 45 and 50 years before the senior professor retired and someone was going to throw it in the dumpster. Luckily someone else thought, "This thing is kinda cool" and took it home, whacked it in half and cut a chunk as a set of bookends. I have the rest of it and would really like to know what it is as I'm seeing quite a few pen blanks in this thing.

Dry, dry, dry, and almost no bark left on anything but there is a little at the top, When I ran a slice through the bandsaw it almost has a well done popcorn smell to it, not as sweet as I'm usually used to for maple. Very light in color but rock hard. I didn't see any red or brown steaks through it so I'm pretty sure it's not Box Elder but I don't have enough exposure to know for sure.

I hope these pictures work.

Reactions: Like 2


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## DKMD (Jan 7, 2014)

The wood looks like aspen, spruce, birch, or cottonwood burl that I've seen before. That's not much help, but I've seen each of those species with similar appearance. Spruce has a pretty distinctive smell(pine like) mad cottonwood smells a bit like gunpowder to me. Aspen has kind of a sweet smell, and birch doesn't smell like much of anything. Whatever it is, it's pretty.


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## Schroedc (Mar 2, 2014)

Based on comparison to some known pieces a friend had we have pretty much decided on cottonwood burl. Thanks all for your input!


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