All About Wood Burls

When you think about wood, your mind likely pictures a clean cut piece of 4x8 wood, the kind you’d find in a home improvement store. Then you imagine the smell – the rich, earthy smell that wafts throughout the store. 

This is wood as most people know it – cut into hundreds of planks from its original form, a massive tree in the forest. But what you may not know is that there’s plenty of waste from this lumber manufacturing process. 

Enter wood burls. 

What is a Wood Burl? 

Burls are the gnarly growths and deformities on trees, characterized by its irregular shape and intricate patterns. It typically forms as a result of stress or injury to the tree, such as from fungal or bacterial infections, insect infestations, or environmental damage. Burls are usually found on the trunk, branches, or roots of a tree.

When you pass a tree in the wilderness, you may describe them as "tumors" or "warts" on trees. They can form in the ground as root burls, at the base of the tree, or even halfway up, sticking off the tree like a stubby branch. 

Wood burls are most commonly caused by certain types of mold and insect infestations. These disrupt the tree’s normal growth pattern, causing abnormal cell proliferation in the short term and a mass of irregularly patterned wood in the long term.

That’s where we come in.

We take these deformities and see something incredible inside of them. We use them to create our signature wooden phone cases, as well as the rest of our live edge wood products. Working with each piece is like opening a birthday present, every day!

Sourcing & Sustainability

The lumber industry is generally not considered a sustainable one, though it is a necessary one. Fortunately for us (& the planet), wood burls are considered lumber waste. And while they’d normally go to waste, we turn these ‘byproducts’ into live edge wood creations. 

We buy our burls directly from the people who harvest and collect them. We work with only a few suppliers to ensure that the burls we are using have been responsibly harvested, never from illegal areas and never from endangered species.

Types of Wood Burls

There are several types of wood burls, all of which offer unique characteristics and patterns that are suited for various forms of woodworking.

• Root Burl – Found at the base of the tree and often below ground level, root burls are dense and feature intricate grain patterns. These are caused by the constant pressure and stress of soil and growth conditions.

• Trunk Burl – Found on the main trunk of the tree, trunk burls can be large and have a wide range of patterns, including swirls, eyes, and curls.

• Limb Burl – Found on the branches or limbs of a tree, limb burls tend to be smaller yet still exhibit beautiful and complex grain patterns.

• Birdseye Burl – Characterized by small, circular eyes scattered throughout the wood, birdseye burls are particularly sought after by wood artists. 

• Spalted Burl – Occurs when a burl is affected by certain types of fungi, which create unique colorations and lines within the wood. Spalting adds an additional layer of visual interest to the already complex burl patterns.
  
  
• Cluster Burl – Composed of multiple small burls that have merged together, a single cluster can present on various parts of the tree and is highly valued for its varied and dense grain patterns.

Each type of burl offers a unique combination of patterns and textures, making them highly desirable for woodworking and artistic creations.

Types of Trees

Technically, any type of tree can form a burl, but some species are more prone to burl formation than others because of their susceptibility to certain stress factors or genetic predispositions.

At Carved, the two most common types of burls we work with are Buckeye Burl and Maple Burl.

Buckeye Burl

Our Buckeye Burl comes from a single supplier, based in Northern California and is sustainably sourced from private land. Buckeye is primarily a root burl that is only found in California (and some small parts of Oregon). It produces a beautiful range of colors and the valleys and rifts we find in the live edges are amazing!

Maple Burl

Our Maple Burl is sourced from Northeastern Oregon and is collected from trees left behind by loggers or trees on private land that need to be taken down. We primarily use Big Leaf Maple because it tends to grow the largest burls and has some wild and crazy live edge patterns. The wood is very hard and dense and is easy to work with.

Other Burls

We also source burls locally after trees have died or fallen over from weather or wind damage. Northern Indiana does not produce very large burls but we have made some amazing products from local Maple, Oak, Willow and Elm burls. We have also sourced burls with some pretty interesting back stories. We found a small collection of Redwood Burls that were from trees burned in the 2018 forest fires. When we received the burls at our shop, they had various areas of charcoal and burn throughout them. This made for some really interesting color and grain patterns in the finished products!

The Burl Lookbook!

Yes, we are perfectly aware of how silly it might be to be so obsessed with random tree growths. But trust us! If you got to see the crazy grain patterns, knots, twists and swirls that we cut into each day, you'd start to get a little obsessed too. Here are just a few of the burls we've worked with...

I get to work with some of the craziest looking things that grow in nature. Each burl yields something a bit different than the last one, it never gets old just walking around our shop and seeing all the unique products being made from this amazing material. I also get to travel around the country (and sometimes the world!) meeting with the other small businesses that we get to work with. We love telling our story but it's also great to hear the stories of how other small businesses got started and found their niche. Keep an eye on our Instagram and Facebook pages to see more of their stories. Here are a couple of photos from 2019 during our visit to Oregon to meet with our supplier...and explore Ecola State Park and Hug Point.

Wood Burl FAQs

How much are wood burls worth?

The value of wood burls can vary widely based on size, species, and quality, ranging from a few dollars for small pieces to several hundred and even several thousand dollars for large, high-quality burls.

What is special about burl wood?

Burl wood is prized for its unique and intricate grain patterns, including swirls, eyes, and curls. It’s how artists are able to make live edge tables, benches, and in our case, phone cases!

How can you tell if wood is burl?

You can identify burl wood by its irregular, knobby surface and the presence of complex, twisted grain patterns inside, often featuring swirls, eyes, and other unique formations. 

What species of wood is burl?

There’s no species of wood specifically called ‘burl.’ Rather, it’s a deformity of a tree, and is common in maple, oak, redwood, walnut, cherry, elm, madrone, and birch trees, among others.