# Too Darn Much Work



## Graybeard (Aug 22, 2015)

A friend had a dead tree he said was a burr oak. It was covered with knobs and bumps. An employee of his dropped it and was cutting it up for firewood. He threw some of the knobs and bumps off to the side. I brought these home today to open up and see what's going on with them.





When I opened them up they were pretty full of inclusions and bugs, ants mostly.





What would you call this, it's not burl that's for sure.

It looks to me like it would have to be stabilized and cast. Not sure it's worth the trouble.

Graybeard

Reactions: Like 3


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## manbuckwal (Aug 22, 2015)

Processing burl is a lot of work with quite a bit of waste as well . Some of the pieces in the back of the truck definitely have some burl clusters on em. Your best figure will be closest to the eyes. Whether or not its worth it depends on what you plan on making w it imo .

Reactions: Agree 1


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## justallan (Aug 22, 2015)

If it's for yourself then time and effort don't matter so much, but if your looking to turn it into cash then it's a whole different ball game.
With that figure if all else fails I think something like big book-ends would be cool.


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## Mr. Peet (Aug 23, 2015)

Allan,

They are called "Narls". Narls are just like "Burls", but lack the "eyes" we all google over. The eyes are buds that often never develop. Narls lack eyes. Gulls are insect, bacteria and / or diseased caused. Another subject.

By the way, the one on the tablesaw looked like "Black willow". Could you take another picture close up? Couldn't see the ring porous character of the oaks, plus it has the black cherry color like apple or black willow.


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## Graybeard (Aug 23, 2015)

Here you go:


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## ClintW (Aug 23, 2015)

If you cut the narl as part of a blank, say call blank, and include the outside void space into the dimensions of the final call size. That would reduce processing time a bit. It will looks sorta like burl caps that are used for casting. This would calture the best figure.
Although the darkened wood from the partial rotting and bugs may looks cool two. Second layer of blanks?


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## Graybeard (Aug 29, 2015)

Mr. Peet, pictures help ID the wood?
Graybeard


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## Mr. Peet (Aug 30, 2015)

I can see the ring porous character I was looking for a little in the last picture. Thanks for posting them. However, I abstain from commenting on type / species of wood and trust you guys in your creative genius to work it into something beautiful where the type of wood means nothing.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 1


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