Like many good ideas, it presented itself whilst sitting by campfire. Picking up the gnarly, bulbous chunk of wood, I thought: “this could be made into a bowl…”

“Nothing to it,” I thought. Just carve out this here thinger and we’ll be slurping up some Campbell’s Chunky in two shakes of a whisker… or so I thought. But let’s back up. What the heck is a “burl” anyway?

I’m so glad you asked. A burl is a knotty, warty growth on a tree. It’s the byproduct of dealing with some sort of distress, shock, disease, etc. They are most often found within the root structure of a tree so you don’t often see them (until you dig out a stump), but sometimes they develop above ground along the exposed trunk.

These, likely, are the ones you want to keep a lookout for as you saunter about the forest. For these trunk-bound burls, you can “shave” them right off a living tree (with a chainsaw… be careful dude(ette)!) or harvest from a felled tree, as you harvest firewood.

So now that you’ve got your burl, how does one go about fashioning it into something? Well, we could go down the path of power tools and fancy woodworking devices, but that’s not really our style around here so let’s go over how one would do it caveman style, or better yet, Native American style.

Reminiscent of the Native American canoe building technique of controlled burning, you’ll want to pull a small shovel-full of red hot coals out of your fire. Put said coals right in the middle of the area you’d like to burn/carve-out.

Now you can sit back and just let that puppy do its magic… or… you can accelerate the process by forcing oxygen into the mix. Again, you want a controlled burn so setting up an industrial fan next to your coals might be overkill, but a concentrated flow of air, applied directly to a targeted area, can work wonders.

My little device picture here is quite simple. It’s basically a big wooden straw or a sort of flute without its keys.

Now that you’ve got a hunk of wood with a charred out divot, how do you fashion it into something that looks like something? Well, that’s up to you.

Again, my preference is for limited tools so a common chisel and/or spoon gouge will work for the big stuff, then you’re likely getting into some sanding for a smoothed finished look. This is the painstaking, long slough, multiple sittings work.

Each burl is unique. Some are big, some are tiny. Some already sort of look like something. Others necessitate more creativity.

This one, for example, screamed out: “Make me into a sailboat!” Or at least, that’s what I pictured when I first saw it.

But be careful!!! In a flurry of excitement, you can do what I did right here and bust through the side-wall of your vessel. Dang!

Lesson learned, don’t try to get too cute and know how much side-wall or bottom you’re working with. But rather than chucking it into the bin, we’re adapting… Say hello to my new bird play-center/seed catch/in-ground bird bath thing:

Maybe start small? This cute little thing is smaller than my fist. I started using the above technique (just a single coal the size of a thumbnail) and went at it for a couple hours, while enjoying the company of family around a nice fire.

I’m far from done here. I’m thinking of affixing little dowels to the bottom so it stands on tiny stilts. Some lacquer finish and it’ll be a… something.

Well, I hope you’re not too disappointed with the lack of finished pieces here. Geez, lay off, I just started! Stay tuned for an update and I’ll share what I come up with!