Diagnosis: Burl Fever

By Dennis Hepler 

What the hell is Burl fever?  Is it some new kind of virus or bacteria?  Maybe a meteor brought an alien germ in from deep space?   No, it’s not that dramatic.  Actually, I’m talking about burlwood and the love of cutting and working it.  Even though burl fever is very rare, once you have it you always have it.  For those of you that don’t know what burlwood is I can only tell you what I have learned after twenty years of gathering, cleaning, cutting, curing, drying, grinding, sanding, wire-wheeling, drilling, finishing and selling it.

Back in 1975 if you would’ve asked me what burlwood was I would have said, uh, maybe some exotic wood from a rain forest somewhere?  I couldn’t have even spelled it then. I first came across burlwood in the spring of 1976 on one of our family trips to Northern California. We stopped at one of those roadside home businesses that had all the freeform naturally shaped slabs of redwood stacked up all over their front yard. If you have ever driven around up north you’ve seen them yourself. We looked around and decided to buy a small table slab and like many others we didn’t think to get a base to set it on. It was there that we met a true backwoodsman by the name of Pete. He told me that the average person call all slabs of redwood "burlwood" when actually most of the slabs are cut from redwood roots and are not true burlwood. Yes, some root slabs have burlwood in them, but they are not slabs of true burlwood. If anyone knew about burlwood it was Pete.  I’ll tell you more about this character later. (You won’t believe how bad his case of Burl fever is.)

True burl looks like a growth on the trunk or the roots of a tree. It looks like a wart or a cancerous growth. It forms as a scar when the tree is damaged by lightning, insects or four and two legged critters. The grain of burl looks like and is called "birdseye." Birdseye burl is thousands of little knots that are bunched together to form patterns such as my favorite called "lace burl." Rootwood slabs have a looser twisted and swirling grain with pockets of burl that formed when the growing root was damaged by an underground rock. There are a few exceptions, mainly the California Coastal redwoods. Their burl grow on the roots at ground level and occasionally a few yards up on the trunk.  These are called aerial burl. The burl on the coastal redwoods have little green sprouts growing out of them that look like miniature trees, and in fact when the tree has fallen or dies one or more of them grow into redwood trees.   This is the only way the coastal redwood reproduce, unlike their cousins the Sequoia Redwoods that reproduce by seeds.

Well, now that you kinda know what burl is and what some of them look like I can try to tell you how I caught burlwood fever so you can choose to avoid it or not. If you are a nature lover and are intrigued by the endless patterns and shapes throughout Mother Nature’s domain then look out, or if you already like working with wood then you are very susceptible. I think the fever hit me a few months after buying that table slab when for the first time I cut a root burl open and marveled at the awesome beauty of the grain.  After the second cut I was hooked for life.  It was just a small chunk of redwood about the size of a football that I was cutting, using an old bowsaw that I had found. While sawing off two inch thick slabs I noticed that each slab had its own unique shape and grain, even the slabs cut next to each other. ‘Sister cuts’ as we call them in the biz.

Suddenly I had a strong need to obtain and cut more redwood.  We were living in Ukiah, Northern California at the time and the place where we bought the table slab was only about 30 miles away. So while the kids were in school one day, my wife Kat and I headed north.  (Luckily for me she was catching burl fever also.)   Along the way we passed a couple of redwood businesses, but I wanted to talk to that Pete guy again. Much to our dismay when we pulled into his place we saw a padlock and an eviction notice on the door. Pete, his family, and most of the wood was gone and according to the notice had been gone for about six weeks. So I picked up a few of the chunks and some very small slabs that were just scattered around. On the way home we decided to pull into one of those redwood stands we had seen on the way up.  I got out of my truck to talk to the guy who was cutting a massive redwood burl stump with the largest chainsaw I’d ever seen. He stopped the saw and took the face shield off and you guessed it, It was Pete. He didn’t remember me, but I sure remembered that wiry guy with a few teeth missing.  Boy, what a character. I told him where we had been and that I had some of that wood in my truck. He said I could have it, in fact it would help him if I could go back and take it all, every scrap of wood. He said he would give me a huge slab of nutmeg for helping him out. We got two truckloads of wood and a friendship that would last several years. No such thing as coincidence.

Over the next year or so we went to Pete’s place several times and each visit turned into a crash course in how to work burlwood. He taught me how to clean the dirt and rocks out of the rootwood stumps after you’ve got them out of the ground. He showed me how to build an Alaskan mill that attached to a chainsaw blade for cutting slabs to an even thickness. He even took us on wood finding expeditions into the forested mountains in his beat up, rusted out old tow truck. The details of those trips would put hair on your chest just reading about them. In fact, my wife is writing a book titled "The Carpenters Wife" which is about our 23-year adventure in woodworking.  It is filled with details of trips like that one. I am currently producing a video documentary called "Got Wood?"  It’s all about a subculture of people with acute cases of "Burl fever."

I know now that I did it the hard way. At the time I was into wrestling two or three hundred pound rootwood stumps. Moving them into cutting position, then digging the dirt and rocks out from between the roots starting with a high-pressure nozzle on my water hose. Sometimes the roots will grow around rocks and to get them out you have to break them up. To do this I took an old axle rod and ground one end to a point, then I would get real primitive. Because of the weight of the axle I could take it with both hands and spear the point into the rock until it shattered. Next I would take my bowsaw and proceed to cut slabs by hand. Now that’s proof of burl fever.
After about two years of that I bought a chainsaw with a five-foot long blade and built an Alaskan mill for it. That didn’t make it any easier, but it did make it possible to cut more slabs and cut them more evenly. While standing there all wet and covered with dirt and wood chips, I would enjoy admiring nature's newly exposed beauty. You can enjoy moments and beauty like that too.

One very important thing to keep in mind while searching for wood and that is to never cut down or damage a live tree. In the 23 years I’ve been cutting wood I have never harmed a living tree. When we would go into an area of the mountains in Northern California that we hadn’t been in for awhile it would make us sick to see the clear cutting done by the greedy lumber companies. All those beautiful old growth Redwood trees are gone forever and when the big ones were cut down they would take a half a dozen new growth trees with it. If the lumber companies and lumberjacks would just see the big picture before it’s too late.

If you live in or near a rural area you shouldn’t have a problem finding wood. Go to a firewood yard and browse around, look for any piece that has a bumpy knob on an otherwise straight grained surface. Also look for forks where two branches come together, look for unusual twists and bends or any part of a tree that was under ground. You can find dead or fallen trees along the roadside or in a field. Be sure you have permission to take wood off of property that isn’t yours.

If you live in a wooded area some of the trees to look for that may have burl on them are Oak, Maple, Black Walnut, Olive, Fig and most fruit trees. Remember that even if a tree doesn’t have burl on it, it still has a root system. Speaking of root systems, it’s hard to beat the roots of the Buckeye tree. Yes, it’s the Ohio state tree but it grows in most of the 48 states where the elevation is over 3000 feet. The Buckeye is an uneatable nut that looks like a huge leafy bush. It can have from two to six main trunks coming out of one ball of root, which are usually 95% under ground. The tree itself has no grain to speak of.  The root ball on the other hand is almost all burl. Except for the dirt and rocks the root ball cuts like butter. The grain of the Buckeye root ball is awesome and the colors are great. It has yellows, tan, blues, black and if you're lucky you’ll find spots of pink. With softwoods like Buckeye there is a way to enhance the colors, especially the blues and blacks. The process is easy.   After cutting the stump into slabs I would squirt the dirt and sawdust off the slabs and get them good and wet. Then stack them one on top of another on black plastic in a mostly sunny place. Do not separate them with slats.  You want them to touch each other. Then cover them completely with black plastic, and put rocks or bricks on the corners of the plastic to keep it in place. Once or twice a week for at least six weeks lift one corner of the plastic and with a garden hose squirt the slabs. The combination of the heat and water will cause mildew to grow in the wood and the mildew is what puts the color in the wood. If you have just a little wood you can do the same process with a black garbage bag.

For those of you that live in the city, take heart, I have found some very exciting grains in city grown trees. We have lived in the L.A. area for about 15 years now and I can tell you that I still haven’t checked out all the different types of trees that city folks grow around here. Some of them that are worth looking for are Maple Oak, Olive, Large Juniper, Oleander, Carob, Black Walnut, all fruit and nut trees, and all citrus trees (orange, lemon, grapefruit, etc.)  There are plenty more that I don’t know the name of.  One good way to find these woods is to call your local city hall and ask where the city grounds keeper puts the dead and fallen trees. Another place to check with is all the tree trimming companies in your area.  Ask them about certain woods and if they would sell the stump to you instead of grinding it up. Also, keep your eyes open for neighbors that are taking down a tree.  Or maybe you just happen to notice that their fruit tree has a dead limb and being the good neighbor that you are you’ll cut it off for free. As I said, not all trees have burl on them, but the ones I ‘ve named here have beautiful grain all through them. Keep in mind that with most of these trees the best looking grains are in the roots. If you know someone that wants a stump removed and you feel like working you ass off digging and cutting and digging and cutting for half a day, then go for it.  Most important of all, have fun. Who knows, you may end up with wood so unique that whatever you make out of it will be a one of a kind.

Now that you have it out of the ground and you’re all sweaty and dirty, get the hose and start squirting dirt off the stump.  When you think you got it all then roll the stump 180 degrees and squirt it some more. Take a long screwdriver or a crowbar and pry and chip the rocks out, if any.  Be sure to check all the cracks and grooves for pockets of dirt, then squirt it all over again. When you think you have it clean enough to cut, turn the hose on yourself.  You’ll need it!

If you don’t have a chainsaw or know someone that does, then you can call a tool rental shop until you find one to rent. If you haven’t used a chainsaw before, then know they are very dangerous.  Get safety advice. Otherwise, find a tool shop or hardware store that sell large bowsaws and cut it up by hand.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, I’ve been there, done that, and trust me it’s too much like work. I chose to enjoy working my ass off. Maybe your case of burl fever isn’t as intense as mine. If you don’t want to work that hard but you still would like to make something out of rootwood or burlwood, then click on my Inquiries page and let me know what you want. Whatever you choose to do, be sure to have fun. Talk to you later.

Copyright © 1999 Hepler Designs.  All rights reserved.

Top of page