| Project by Hacksaw007 | posted 1234 days ago | 1301 views | 0 times favorited | 12 comments |  |
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I called this burl my turkey burl, due to a story about it. Many years ago I cut this first burl and was too lazy to peel the bark off of it right away. Those of you who look to get burls, this is my first rule, is to take the bark off as soon as possible. I left this one set for a year, and then remembered that it still had the bark on it. Taking the bark of of a burl that has set is many time harder than if you take off when green and wet. Opon taking off the bark I discovered that this first burl was now a hotel for termites or some type of grub or worm. It was loaded with many worms and holes in my wonderful burl. They were alive and well and still eating my wood. What to do? The wife wasn’t home so I put this burl in her largest turkey pan and put it into the oven at 300. You can see the trouble coming can’t you…. I got busy on the computer and forgot about it until the smoke alarm alerted me to a whole house full of smoke! My burl had heated up to smoking. The burl was way too hot to remove from the pan, so I left it in and took it outside to “smoke off”. Got some fans and tried to clean out the smoke from the house before my wife came home. BUSTED! You should have seen her face when I told her the story of my burl in her stove, and then when I told her that I was cooking off the “bugs” in it, in her clean pan. Well you can fill in the blanks! The burl when cooled had between 50 and 100 raisin looking dead worms in the bottom, and when I lifted up the burl and shook it, out came many, many more former tenants. DOA! The infestation was over, my turkey burl now had a lovely glazed color to it. I didn’t have the heart to cut him up so I just finished it with a few coats of sprayed laquer. Not sure what the wood was. The second burl show, I believe was off of a maple tree, and I did take the bark off when I was suppost to. Both burls are very heavy, and great to look at. Just didn’t have the heart to cut these two, they just look so good as is. The Turkey burl measures at 15 inches high, 19 long, and 13 deep, the second burl measures at: 17 inches wide, 13 deep, and 15 tall. both are solid medium sized burls. Hope you got a laugh about my cooking lesson! Thanks for reading.
-- For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
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12 comments so far
sras
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3245 posts in 1298 days
#1 posted 1234 days ago
Cool story! I assume you are still married – and therefore you have a very tolerant wife…
-- Steve - Impatience is Expensive
NoSlivers
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205 posts in 1259 days
#2 posted 1234 days ago
no marinade? no stuffing? and lots of dead bugs? OK, don’t worry about me crashing your next Thanksgiving!! Funny story though, thanks for sharing it. If you ever decide to work something out of these, be sure to post it along with the story of it’s colorful background. :)
-- If you don't have time to do it right, do you have time to do it twice?
mmh
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3034 posts in 1891 days
#3 posted 1234 days ago
Sounds tasty to me! Very funny, thanks for sharing!
-- "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." ~ Edgar Allan Poe
MsDebbieP
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18320 posts in 2330 days
#4 posted 1234 days ago
great story…. the first question that came to mind was: “Did you have to clean the oven after?”
I’m not a clean fanatic but I think i’d want to disinfect, disinfect, disinfect…
ewwwww
nice wood :)
-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
Bradford
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1421 posts in 1992 days
#5 posted 1234 days ago
I’d still like to see the inside of that grain. Nice post.
-- so much wood, so little time. Bradford. Wood-a-holics unanimous president
Hacksaw007
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560 posts in 1358 days
#6 posted 1234 days ago
Still married to the same woman. Ms Debbie, would you let the same man who cooked the bugs in your oven, clean that same oven? NOT. I really suprized that the wood never cracked. Maybe this is a great new drying process? Hmmmmm. I haved discovered a burl almost the size of a VW Bug. About 30 feet up in the air yet. Just havn’t figured out how to get, cut it, haul it? I will try to get some pictures of this bad boy. It’s the biggest one that I have ever seen!
-- For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
dustyal
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1125 posts in 1644 days
#7 posted 1234 days ago
Greatly enjoyed your story. It does have a nice glazed turkey look… At first glance I thought it was a giant petrified mushroom.
We have a 100+ year old tree trunk sitting on three legs. It was a chopping block in an old time butcher shop. We’ve had the thing for 38 years. (my cutting board project is sitting on it). About 15 years ago, we suddenly had worms crawling and bugs flying around the house. It had became infested with some sort of wood boring bug. Didn’t have a oven big enough to cook it off (thankfully), so I dusted heavily with borax powder and covered with black plastic bag and let it sit outside for a few months. (hard to move around at 300 lbs.) Anyway, have not had a problem since—and the bug holes are still there.
Those bugs may have been laying in it dormant for years, or somehow a pregnant one got in and multiplied for a few generations.
-- Al H. - small shop, small projects...
racey13
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24 posts in 1207 days
#8 posted 1207 days ago
Hacksaw very funny story; sounds like soething I would pull, except I would have burned the house down!
Mike
-- racey13
a1Jim
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87181 posts in 1746 days
#9 posted 1206 days ago
Cool story and burl
-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/
Skylark53
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2265 posts in 1229 days
#10 posted 1205 days ago
That’s hilarious-I hope your wife can laugh at it now. Very nice burl.
-- Rick, Tennessee, John 3:16
mmh
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3034 posts in 1891 days
#11 posted 1193 days ago
This looks like a giant brain of a monster or something out of a Sci-Fi movie. Has it grown or pulsated since you last worked on it???? I’d love to see the inner grain, but it would be a shame to cut it open.
-- "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." ~ Edgar Allan Poe
AtomJack
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1279 posts in 1278 days
#12 posted 1193 days ago
Dude- cut that bad boy into slices and you will be able to make some of the sweetest stuff from it! Remember the big craze for “pecky cedar”, 20+ years ago? You are going to have one rare “pecky” burl. Just picture what the burl looks like inside <drool>.
Uhhh…well, maybe not. You want to sell that termite-bitten ol’ piece of firewood to me for shipping costs? lol.
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