burl

burl

1. a small knot or lump in wool

2. a roundish warty outgrowth from the trunk, roots, or branches of certain trees

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

burl

A decorative pattern in wood caused by adjacent knots. See also: Wood

Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

burl

[bərl]

(botany)

A hard, woody outgrowth on a tree, usually resulting from the entwined growth of a cluster of adventitious buds.

(materials)

In lumber or veneer, a localized severe distortion of the grain that is generally rounded in outline.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

burl

1. An abnormal growth or protuberance on a tree. Also called knur, knurl.

2. Wood veneer cut from burls.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Burl

 

a distinctive excresence of the trunks, branches, and roots of leafy and, more rarely, coniferous trees. Burls apparently develop as a result of the damage done to trees by fires, fungi, and pasturing cattle. They appear where there is an overabundance of shoots and where dormant buds and adventitious buds grow closely together. In these areas of the tree there is also an intense development of cordate rays with the formation of tracheidal flexures and wood fibers (cross-grained wood). The wood in a burl grows 1½ to 3 times faster than the normal wood of a tree; it is also heavier and harder. The planes exposed after cutting have beautiful patterns. Burls are used by joiners, carvers, and turners as material for the production of small articles. The wood from burls is also used for veneers. Walnut burls, which reach a diameter of 1.5-2 m, are particularly valuable. In the USSR, walnut burls are found mainly in Middle Asia and, occasionally, in the Caucasus. Birch, linden, and alder burls are used in the production of particularly small items.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.