Fast and high-quality drying of burls and suvels at home. What is a burl, where do burls grow? How to prepare mouth guards correctly? What are tree burls used for?

Burls are growths and thickenings that are found on the trunks of birch, maple, oak, walnut, pine, etc. The following swellings occur in areas of tissue proliferation:

Its name comes from the Slavic “cap” - head. And indeed the burl resembles a human head on a tree. Burl is found on the branches of old trees and trunks. There is also a burl root, which is a burl that forms at the root part of the tree. The largest capo roots reach 2 m in diameter. Furniture is often made from capo root:

How it is an unusually durable and extremely decorative material, which is valued on a par with valuable wood. The texture of its pattern when cut is an interweaving of annual layers, the core of dormant buds in the form of concentric circles and dark dots. There are more dormant buds in the stem burl than in the root burl, so its texture is more expressive:

Burls are harvested only from fallen trees in sawmill areas. After the burl is cut, it is freed from bark, knots, and resin. Then the workpiece is boiled in a 5% solution of table salt. The duration of boiling depends on the diameter of the workpiece: up to 10 cm in diameter boil for about an hour, large pieces are boiled for up to 3-5 hours.

Boiling is necessary to neutralize the juice inside the workpiece, so it dries faster. After boiling, until the workpiece has dried, it is cleaned of any remaining bark. Boiling makes the texture of the design more expressive. Then the workpieces are dried for several weeks indoors, or for several hours in a drying cabinet or on a radiator. After this, the burl is sawed into plates. After this, give full rein to your imagination, making sure that your plans do not contradict natural beauty wood, emphasizing its structure. The inner part of the product is selected with an adze, semicircular chisels, and cranberries. When finishing the product, excess knots are removed, trying to reveal the game different layers wood, sanded with sandpaper. Small cracks can be filled with putty by mixing small sawdust with PVA glue. If desired, the product can be tinted with stains or natural dyes, such as onion peels, alder cones, etc. Can be covered finished product varnish or wax mastic.

Burls are used to make beautiful boxes, smoking pipes, chess sets, and knife handles:

Burls also make very decorative vases, candlesticks and simply sculptures for decorating the interior of natural shapes:

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Material, which has long been known in Russia as wood bone.
This is a growth, see photo 1, (or influx, as it is also called) on Birch, which forms on a tree trunk for various reasons. For example, weather conditions, climate impacts environment. Also, this effect can be achieved artificially by wrapping the trunk, for example, with wire; over time it will become overgrown with Suvelya. It was called bone due to the fact that after careful polishing and impregnation with various oils, the wood takes on a bone-like appearance, and its thin parts can be seen through.

Photo 1. View of Suveli after sleeping. It looks like a bump or swelling. Initially it is difficult to judge internal view wood after cutting it.

In most cases, with proper cutting, you can observe amazing phenomena, namely the interweaving of wood fibers that form pearlescent areas of different (unique) patterns and directions, which literally glow, reflecting daylight. Patterns and colors may be different, mostly pink-yellow, straw, or brownish yellow with a deep pearlescent glow on the cut, in some cases there are specimens with a dark brown color with the presence of marsh-green shades. This color range is explained by the fact that the wood grows in different conditions and areas, for example: If the growth was cut down in a very swampy area, then it is possible that the color of the wood will most likely be brownish-green. Or another example: If Suvel is located on the butt part of a tree (the butt part of the trunk is the part that is 10 - 15 cm underground and 15 - 20 cm above it, this is on average) and it is covered with moss, then most likely it it will be dark brown with the presence of a pale pink tint, or straw yellow - golden with dark brown growth rings - that is, the presence of dark shades will dominate, but not always.

Photo 2. A rare and valuable specimen of Suveli, naturally dried for about 1.5 years. In the photo you can see the ray glow of the fibers in daylight. This glow is called "Mother of Pearl", it can be different types, from clear pearlescent rays to those you see in other images, there is no limit to the variety.

Photo 3 . This sample is also rare, its main difference from the one on photo 2, this is a marble texture and drying technology, it was dried in a quick way, namely by boiling in a salty solution. The photo clearly shows how it differs from the one on photo 2, the one above has a total straw or golden color and on photo 3 The color is predominantly brownish pink.

Photo 4. Here you see a species that is also rare, but is more common than those in photos 2 and 3.

Photo 5. In this photo, mother-of-pearl stains are called ashy or glass. This type is the most common, but its value is not lost because everyone has different tastes. Some people like the radial section, while others like luminous ashy stains.

Photo 6. This, as we already understood, is the radial direction of the fibers with the presence of ashy stains. (mixed type)

Photo 7. A specimen that looks like a simple one, but in fact it is not, it is also a rare species that grows mainly in swamps, which is why it has such a color.

Photo 8. This is an example of how Suvel looks in finished form (product) in combination with reindeer antler and metals. Knife by Valery Sokolov "Svalbard", made in Scandinavian style.

More, general view This wood depends on the type of drying (this does not affect the quality of the products), there are several drying options.
1. Natural, this is when the wood has dried under natural conditions, without human intervention, that is, after being cut over time, the tree has dried out on its own.
2. The old Russian method of quick drying, the wood is boiled in a salty solution for several hours, then the bark is removed and placed in a dark and dry place for several weeks, this is the minimum, and after that it is quite suitable for processing.
The noticeable difference after these types of drying is the color. During natural drying, the wood remains its natural color, and after cooking it acquires a soft pink or carrot tint, this is not for everyone, whoever wants it dries it the way he wants. In the skillful hands of a person who has everything in order with his imagination, any piece of wood will shine and look expensive, you just have to really want it and use your imagination.

Suvel is a material from which you can make various objects, for example, women's jewelry in the form of pendants, earrings, hairpins and bracelets, it depends on how much imagination a person has. Previously, but no, not only earlier and now some enthusiasts use it to make cutlery that is quite suitable for its intended purpose, take for example the Scandinavian “Kuksy”, this is something like our mugs, only made of wood, a better material than Suvel Can't find one for this.
But most importantly, this material is most suitable for making knife handles. Due to its inherent qualities, such as hardness, density, ease of processing and polishing, unique texture, variety of color shades, beauty of mother-of-pearl weaves, etc. One thing is clear that this material will never get boring, although some will not agree with me, this is their right. Previously, I made handles only from exotic types of wood, but they quickly tired me with their monotony and monotony, although to each their own, and someone will say the opposite. But I definitely learned for myself that there is no better raw material than Birch and what it gives us in the form of Burps, Suvels, Svils, Butts and the root part.

All samples that you see in the form of bars are ground and polished, and then treated with shelf oil. This allows you to preserve the natural color of the wood and protect it from moisture and decay + treated with carnauba wax.

The variety of Suveli is very rich, I would say endless, this material is combined with almost all types of wood, bone, metals, etc.

Burl bowl

In folk crafts and decorative arts, materials obtained from wood are widely used. Linden, aspen, birch, alder, willow - these trees provide wood for crafts and/or twig and bast for weaving. If the material is unusual and rare, then it brings the craft to new level- a valuable commodity or even a work of art that deserves more than local history museum. Among these are burl (growth), a defect in the development of trees different breeds. In terms of physical and aesthetic properties, processed burl (birch burl is used most often) can compete with valuable types of wood that are not harvested from us, stone, and bone. It is hard, durable, dense, with a characteristic fine structure, which is not difficult to emphasize and enhance using natural finishing and coloring methods in products made from birch burl and other species.

Burls are classified as growths on trees, local thickenings on branches, trunk, and roots. It is formed by highly deformed, twisted wood with many dormant buds. The interweaving of annual layers, the pattern of bud eyes and rings forms the visible structure of the wood. And the buds themselves, on and under the surface, form a complex texture, similar to a frozen picture of drops and splashes. The products use both qualities, structure and texture.

Of the wood growths, suvel is close to kapu. In it, the wood also forms a complex, but less tortuous pattern and there is no abundance of buds characteristic of burl. Young shoots often grow from the buds on the burl of a living tree. This is not typical for Suveli. The growths can take the form of local and encircling thickenings. They are found both on the visible part of the plant and underground, where the burl is as covered with bark as the trunk of a normal tree. Fresh shoots from “awakened” buds growing from under the ground near the parent tree allow you to find an underground burl (cap root).

Burl growth without special treatment as interior decoration

Burl is a developmental defect in wood. General or the only reason its appearance is difficult to pinpoint. Most likely, burl formation is a complex response of a growing tree to external influences, probably related to mutations. An indirect confirmation of this is the presence of multiple burls on the affected tree and its absence on neighboring ones. Perhaps local damage to the plant or disease triggers the growth (leading to the tree’s protective activity in response). Burl is greater on grafted trees and heavily pruned trees. There are mentions that walnut plantings with grafted trees served as a rich source of valuable burl material. To improve " psychological portrait"burl uses the concept of a stronger, recovered and immune parent for the tree material. This shifts the emphasis from the growth - disease, to the burl - evidence of the natural growth and “hardening” of the tree. Since the burl is rare, and it is very labor-intensive to carry out a laboratory experiment on the development of the burl, it is unlikely that such a concept has reliable factual foundations.

The burl manifests itself in the irregular formation of wood and bast from the cambium and the abnormal development of adventitious buds. During natural, healthy growth, the cambium forms a new growth layer and phloem. In the burl, the directions of wood growth are not oriented, the wood layers are bent and wrinkled. The birth of adventitious plants and the presence of dormant buds waiting in the wings are a normal consequence of tree growth. Superficial dormant buds can normally develop into shoots. Some end up in the thickness of the tree and, upon awakening, form local thickenings on the trunk. In the case of a burl, the process of bud generation and development is extremely active (by the standards of a tree's life). The buds deform the wood in the thickness of the burl and form a pimply surface.

Wooden clock mechanism in a burl case

Burl is found on many types of trees, most often on deciduous ones. Small burls (burl tops) are cut down from living trees, followed by sealing the cut (garden pitch, clay) to preserve the tree. The growths are also collected during logging. In the past, the production of capo-root products was carried out by cooperatives. Teams of searchers and sawyers were sent into the forest to collect material. In Russia, Vyatka is known for its burl crafts. In the forests of the Kirov region, birch burl was harvested en masse, and the artels employed several hundred people. In mass procurement, the material was usually slowly dried, then sawed into more or less standard blanks, then turned into small-scale products (mainly box-type - boxes, cigarette cases, boxes for board games etc.). At the final stage, the burl was polished, soaked in oil and varnished. If decorative cutting was intended, the burl was first prepared (boiled, steamed), after which it was cut “like a turnip.”

Burl growth on a birch

Dry material is strong and hard, strongly curled, and it is more difficult and difficult to process than healthy wood. It does not delaminate or split. Since burl is more difficult to obtain than regular wood, it costs more. Therefore, they handle burl raw materials more carefully. Although the isotropic, twisted structure of the wood prevents splitting when drying out, fresh burl tops must be dried properly. The workpiece is dried under natural conditions to an air-dry state, the bark is not removed, and the cut is covered with a layer of a substance that prevents rapid drying. For small burl growths, accelerated preparation of raw materials is also used by boiling them (steaming) in water with the addition of salt and shavings. Usually, after prolonged repeated boiling, the bark is easily separated from the cut, and the material itself becomes soft enough for cutting. To protect and finish the finished craft, it is coated with oil, wax, and natural varnishes.

Burls are used to make boxes, caskets, handles of canes and knives, and jewelry. Cap large sizes with a smaller proportion of textured surface, it is sawn into smaller workpieces. After finishing (painting, polishing), they can be used independently as tabletops, home decoration elements, and also as a material for finishing the surface of furniture. Typically, larger growths also have a larger texture. Therefore, for small forms, small burls with a fine pattern, collected from the branches and trunk, are especially valuable.

CAP PROCESSING

On the trunks of birch trees, high above the ground or at the very root, you can sometimes find spherical woody growths covered with brown, rough bark. These are mouth guards.
The beauty of birch burl wood was not immediately revealed to man. At first he appreciated only its extraordinary strength. A small burl with a piece of trunk and a hollowed-out cavity was transformed in the hands of a craftsman into a durable and convenient ladle or ladle. A larger bowl or cup was hollowed out of the burl.

But such products have a unique different pattern The mouthguard remained unopened. The wood was subjected to only rough processing. Only much later, when they learned to saw burl into thin slices and polish it, did it begin to be valued as an excellent decorative material. IN early XIX century, Russian cabinetmakers began to use burl along with valuable wood for decorative finishing of furniture. At the same time, the first boxes and snuff boxes made entirely from burl appeared. Some skillfully made items were literally worth their weight in gold." The burl was often combined with other materials - most often inlaid with mother-of-pearl, boxwood and ivory.

The former Vyatka province, now Kirov region. Vyatka masters have participated in international exhibitions many times.
The craftsmen of the Zvenigorod district of the Moscow region had their own special technology for processing burls. But after the Great Patriotic War this unique craft has died out.

Relatively recently, the production of burl products arose in Bash-Kiriya, which is famous for its reserves of burl birch. In the spring, as soon as the snow melts, burl harvesters go to the mountain forests of the south of Bash-Kiria. They carefully cut the growths from birch trunks, then thickly lubricate the cut area with paraffin, oil paint or lime, so that harmful microbes do not enter the tree, so that it does not wither or die. In a few years, a burl may grow on it again. It has been noticed that burl wood grows two to three times faster than normal birch wood. Lubricate the blanks and cut the burl itself so that it does not crack before processing begins.

A burl growing on a tree trunk is usually called a stem burl, and one growing at the root is called a burl root. Capo root is found in the forest much more often than stem burl, and reaches one and a half meters in diameter. According to their shape, burls are divided into two types: circular, encircling the trunk around, and lateral, growing from the side of the tree.

Burls are found not only on birch, but also on aspen, alder, oak, linden, willow and spruce. But they have no industrial significance, although various decorative items can be made from them.
Very often, mouthguards are confused with other growths - with the so-called suvel. Suvel is found on birch trees more often than burl, and on the cut it has a wavy, curled texture, similar to the texture of Karelian birch. You can distinguish a burl from a suveli by the “sleeping” buds, which are large quantities located on the surface of a real burl and are small hemispherical tubercles. From some tubercles thin branches can sprout - “awakened” buds.

On a cut, the textured pattern of the burl is a complex interweaving of annual layers that shimmer when the lighting angle changes. In a good burl, when cut, the annual layers and cores of dormant buds are visible in the form of many concentric circles and dark brown dots. The more such dots with concentric circles, the more lively and decorative the drawing. There are usually more dormant buds in the trunk burl, so the texture on its cut is more beautiful than that of the root burl, and its wood is more valued by craftsmen.

Sometimes the texture of the burl has such a bizarre pattern that, with some imagination, in the chaotic interweaving of wood fibers one can discern images of fantastic animals and landscapes. It is impossible to find at least two pieces of burl with the same pattern, so joinery that has the same shape is still not similar to one another. Each of them is unique.

You cannot cut down the burl from standing trees yourself: without knowing all the intricacies of this matter, you can destroy the tree. Unauthorized cutting of a burl is fined on the same basis as cutting down a forest. But if you are interested in processing burl, you can cut it from fallen trees at the warehouse of the nearest timber industry enterprise - with the permission of the storekeeper, of course.
Start processing the burl by sawing it into plates, selecting their thickness depending on the size of the intended product. The beauty of the textured pattern largely depends on successful sawing.

Over time, you will learn to immediately determine by the shape of the burl, by the location of the dormant buds, how best to cut it in order to reveal the hidden beauty. Try to saw the burl so that the cutting plane cuts across maximum quantity dormant buds.
Usually, on a fresh cut, the texture pattern of the burl is pale and barely noticeable. To make it appear, the burl wood is steamed. The easiest way is to boil the pieces over low heat for two to three hours. But the best results are obtained by steaming wood in sawdust. Wet the sawdust and place it on the bottom of the pan in a layer of about 20 mm, put a layer of blanks on top, cover it with a new layer of sawdust, etc.

Now put the pan in the oven for two to three hours. As a result of steaming, tree sap is removed from the burl, the uneven drying of which could subsequently warp and crack the wood. At the same time, the blanks are colored with natural dyes contained in the tray and acquire many shades - from golden amber to dark chocolate.

After steaming, dry the cap for several hours in a drying cabinet, and if there is none, then simply in the air, but for at least a week.
Now you can cut, grind and glue various products from blanks - some of them are shown in the pictures.
Burl products are most often coated with alcohol-based shellac varnish. Its film is quite durable and gives a warm yellowish color with a soft shine. You can also use nitro varnishes - they have a more intense shine and make the texture pattern clearer and more contrasting. Before coating, you need to thoroughly sand the surface of the product with sandpaper - first coarse, then fine.

Cap, suvel. Harvesting, drying, properties.

Author of this material- a great specialist in the artistic processing of wood (and not only wood), already familiar to us from Sergei from the Moscow region. Today Sergey will reveal to readers the secret of quick drying of such rare and interesting materials as burl and suvel. The information is very rare and useful. Reading...

So first, let's define some concepts.
KAP - (aka witch's broom) is a benign formation on a tree, which is a bunch of thin branches growing from a teardrop-shaped (most often) growth. When viewed cross-section, it has a texture with pronounced knot cores. It is difficult to process due to its highly curled texture and a huge number of knots. Extremely beautiful, durable, perfectly sanded and polished.
Numerous individual areas have a pearlescent tint. It has no great industrial significance, but is highly valued because of its beauty. If it is used in industry, it is only in the form of veneer for finishing furniture (burls from exotic tree species are mainly used), as well as the production of small products such as boxes, cigarette cases, women's hairpins, and small jewelry (birch burls). Used on knife handles is considered good taste and is also valued by wood carvers for its unique texture.
It is impossible to find two identical pieces of burl; even the halves of a sawn burl have different patterns, the build-up is so heterogeneous. It grows on many trees (linden, alder, birch, maple, oak, etc.), but the most valuable and beautiful is birch (of those growing in our latitudes). The growth is usually small, maximum the size of a volleyball ball or the size of a large plate.
There is no point in cutting any pattern on the burl, since the texture clogs everything up.
Shown in the photo birch burl. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a cut of a birch burl (I took these pictures near my native police station and, as you understand, they wouldn’t let me cut anything down there... But I contrived and found an ash burl; most of the burls are similar in texture and only differ color and size of the knots’ cores. Let’s see:

SUVEL - (aka svil) As is clear from the name, the growth got its name because of its structure (twisted structure, that’s putting it mildly). Suvel is a drop-shaped or spherical growth on a tree (there is also a ring variety that covers the tree trunk around the perimeter), usually grows 2-3 times faster than the tree itself. When cut, it has a texture similar in pattern to marble and mother-of-pearl (this is the main sign of difference from KAPA; in the future, do not confuse suvel and burl).
The presence of mother-of-pearl stains on polished wood creates a beautiful shimmering picture that glows from within. Svil is also poorly processed, like burl, but not as hard. The size varies from a nut to 1.5 meters in height (I myself saw one on a birch) and up to 2 meters in diameter (a ring-shaped suvel that completely covered the tree trunk). The font in the Vatican is worth a lot more than a meter in diameter, cut from a single piece of suveli. I myself was once sitting in a chair carved from suveli. It holds fine threads perfectly, but cutting suvel is not recommended. It is better to sand and varnish (impregnate with oil). The product will only benefit from this.
The most valuable is the root or butt fork. The presence of dark veins and clearly defined twisted annual rings. This is a fairy tale. BEAUTIFUL, that says it all. Barrel suvel has a finer texture and a more subtle “frosty” pattern. And lighter wood. In terms of strength, butt suvel is slightly superior to trunk suvel due to the structure of the tree trunk. Suvel is durable, beautiful, easy to polish and sand. Well-dried and treated, it begins to “glow” from the inside (with proper impregnation with oils, the wood becomes like amber and even a little transparent). Usually has a color from soft yellow to pinkish-brown to completely ocher-brown. It all depends on the conditions and drying time. The cap has the same colors.
Photos:

As you can see, the cap is not at all similar to suvel.

CHAGA is a mushroom (not to be confused with the tinder fungus!!!) and we do not need it for our purposes.

So, how to dry it. I’ll say right away that the “steaming” method is suitable for small pieces of wood. About half the size of a football or a small log.

1. We cut off the growth. We do this with a sharp saw. Otherwise, you’ll get tired of sawing, and the tree will start to get shaggy. We do not peel off the bark. Don't forget to cover the cut on the wood with oil paint or wax or something similar.

IT IS PREFERABLE TO CUTT OUT THE GROWTH DURING THE DRY TIME OF THE YEAR, IDEAL AT THE END OF AUGUST, THE BEGINNING OF SEPTEMBER, BEFORE THE COMMONATION STARTS.

2. Take an unnecessary pan (bucket) and throw a piece of wood there. The pan is absolutely unnecessary, since during the cooking process a very tricky broth is formed which is then very troublesome to wash off. It is better to clean the wood of any rags of birch bark and other fragile and dangling pieces. they will still fall off.
I'm considering exactly birch growth, as the most affordable and beautiful, the remaining growths are cooked using the same technology. The log is accordingly cleaned of any debris and fragile particles. Pour water. It is convenient to do this with a faceted glass (it contains 250 ml). The water should cover the piece of wood by about a centimeter or two. The tree naturally floats up, but let’s press it to the bottom and we’ll see everything. It doesn’t matter what kind of water you pour, cold or hot, it will still boil. You can throw a piece of wood into a saucepan as much as you like; what is important is the volume of an individual piece of wood and not the total volume of wood.

3. Take table salt, whatever you don’t mind. We're not making soup. For a liter of water, pour 2 large tablespoons of salt (who will count glasses of water??? Eh?). You can do more, as much as you like, it’s okay, it’s impossible to overdo it.
The main thing is that the water is sickly salty. You can use clean sea water (precisely clean, otherwise it will smell disgusting of mud).
The salt will draw sap from the tree, but will not saturate the tree.

4. Find sawdust of resinous wood. Spruce and pine are the easiest to get. Take a saw and go ahead. We need two powerful handfuls of sawdust (raking the sawdust with both hands). Precisely sawdust, not shavings from a simple hand plane.
The shavings will come from an electric planer (you can get them at the nearest sawmill or plan them yourself). I always use them. They are quite small and are usually plentiful and easy to obtain. The more resin in the sawdust, the better. And the finer the sawdust, the better. Pour into a saucepan. You could have taken a bigger saucepan! Sawdust will give the suveli a pleasant ocher color. From soft pink-yellow to ocher-brown. Resins will also add strength to the wood and reveal texture.

5. When the water boils, reduce the heat and leave it simmering for 6-8 hours, longer if you have the patience.
If the saucepan is large, then you don’t have to turn down the flame, let the water boil and bubble. But you need to watch so that the water does not boil away completely. Salt, sawdust, temperature and time will do their job. Add water as needed. During the cooking process, a red “broth” is formed. And scale. It is better to remove scale immediately. It is very difficult to wash off.

6. 6-8 hours have passed (depending on the size of the piece of wood). We take out the piece of wood. We rinse under running water to remove sawdust. We dump the water from the pan as unnecessary, but you can leave it for next time if you have somewhere to store it. But it's easier to pour out the water. We throw the growth onto the cabinet, wrapping it in nothing. Let it cool for a day or two.

7 We repeat the cooking and drying process 2-4 times depending on the volume of the wood.
To speed up the process, you can use a pressure cooker. The time is reduced to 4-6 hours.

8. During the last cooking, you need to quickly peel off the bark while the tree is hot. Although she herself should fall off by this time. Carefully!!! Hot!!! use gloves!

9. We throw it on the closet for a week or two. The tree is basically already dry, but let the remaining moisture go away.
The tree will “get used” to the atmosphere. After final drying, the wood will become bone-like and can be cut, sawed, or sanded. There will be no foreign smell. It will only smell like wood.

10. In the process of accelerated drying of wood, it must be remembered that small cracks may appear, and therefore it is necessary to allow allowance for their removal in subsequent processing.

11. Where to look for growths... Naturally in the forest. BUT! certain places there is no growth, they grow spontaneously, and the biggest and most beautiful growths will be found by the most big-eyed and persistent. This activity is akin to mushroom hunting; whoever ran around the forest further and further got more.
That seems to be it. I remind you once again that large pieces cannot be dried like this. Cracked. Necessarily. Verified.

12. After the wood has finally gotten used to the atmosphere, you can start working with the workpiece. It is advisable to soak the suvel and cap with oil, and if desired, with wax too. The wood will reveal its texture, it will “play,” as they say, and all its inner beauty will appear.

If you have any questions or any clarifications about the technology described above, I will answer to the best of my ability.

I’ll end with this, your Serjant.