16.06.2019

Birch burl and products from them. Birch growth: what is it called, why does it appear on a tree? Growths on trees: photo, name, general description

Burl bowl

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

Caps are classified as growths on trees, local thickenings on branches, trunk, roots. It is formed by heavily deformed, curly 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 exits of the kidney on and under the surface form a complex texture, similar to a frozen picture of drops and splashes. The products use both qualities, both structure and texture.

Of the outgrowths of wood, kapu suvel is close. In it, the wood also forms a complex, but less sinuous pattern and there is no abundance of buds characteristic of burl. From the buds on the cap of a living tree, young shoots often grow. 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 also covered with bark, like the trunk of a normal tree. Finding an underground burl (kapokoren) allows fresh shoots growing from the ground near the parent tree from “awakened” buds.

Burl growth without special treatment as an interior decoration

Cap is a defect in the development of wood. General or the only reason its appearance is difficult to distinguish. Most likely, burl formation is a complex response of a growing tree to external influences, probably associated with mutations. An indirect confirmation of this is the presence of multiple burls on the affected tree and its absence on the neighboring ones. Perhaps, it triggers the growth (leads to the response protective activity of the tree) local damage to the plant, diseases. Burl is more on grafted trees, heavily pruned trees. There are references that walnut plantations with grafted trees served as a rich source of valuable burl material. For improvement " psychological portrait» burl uses the concept of a stronger, recovered and immune parent for the wood material. This shifts the emphasis from the growth - the disease, to the cap - evidence of the natural growth and "hardening" of the tree. Since burl is rare, and it is very laborious to set up a laboratory experiment on the development of burl, such a concept is unlikely to have reliable factual grounds.

Cap appears in the irregular formation of wood and bast from the cambium and the abnormal development of adnexal buds. In the course of natural, healthy growth, a new annual layer and bast are formed from the cambium. In the cap, the directions of wood growth are not oriented, the wood layers are bent, crumpled. The emergence of adnexal and the presence of dormant buds waiting in the wings is a normal consequence of the growth of a tree. Superficial dormant buds may normally develop into shoots. Some find themselves in the thickness of the tree and, upon awakening, form local thickenings on the trunk. In the case of burl, the process of budding and development of buds is extremely active (by the standards of tree life). The buds deform the wood in the thickness of the burl, forming a pimply surface.

Wooden clockwork in a burl case

Bur is found on many types of trees, more often on deciduous ones. Small caps (burls) are cut down from living trees, followed by saw cut (garden pitch, clay) to save the tree. Growths are also collected during logging. In the past, artels were engaged in the production of kaporeshkovy products. Brigades of searchers and sawyers were sent to the forest to harvest material. In Russia, Vyatka is known for its burl crafts. In the forests of the Kirov region, birch burl was harvested in large quantities, and several hundred people were employed in artels. With mass preparations, the material was usually dried slowly, then sawn into more or less standard blanks, then turned into small-scale products (mainly box-type - caskets, cigarette cases, boxes for board games etc.). At the final stage, the burl was polished, impregnated with oil and varnished. If decorative cutting was supposed, the cap was preliminarily prepared (boiled, steamed), after which it was cut, “like a turnip”.

Burl growth on a birch

Dry material is strong and hard, strongly twisted, it is more difficult and difficult to process than a healthy tree. It doesn't flake or split. Since burl is more difficult to obtain than ordinary wood, it costs more. Therefore, they treat burl raw materials more carefully. Although the isotropic, curly structure of the wood prevents splitting when it dries out, fresh burl must be dried properly. The workpiece is dried in 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 burls, accelerated preparation of raw materials is also used with its boiling (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, natural varnishes.

Caskets, caskets, handles of canes and knives, jewelry are made from burl. Cap large sizes with a smaller proportion of textured surface is sawn into smaller workpieces. After finishing (painting, polishing), they can be independently used as countertops, home decoration elements, as well as a material for finishing the surface of furniture. Usually, large growths are characterized by a larger texture. Therefore, for small forms, small caps with a small pattern, collected from branches and trunks, are especially valued.

Cap, suvel. Harvesting, drying, properties.

The author of this material is 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 a secret to readers quick drying 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 a witch's broom) is a benign formation on a tree, which is a bundle of thin twigs growing from a drop-shaped (most often) growth. When cross-sectioned, it has a texture with pronounced knot cores. It is difficult to process due to the strongly curly texture and the huge number of knots. Extremely beautiful, durable, perfectly sanded and polished.
Separate numerous areas have a mother-of-pearl tint. It has no great industrial value, but is highly valued because of its beauty. If it is used in industry, it is only in the form of veneer for furniture finishing (mostly exotic wood burl is used), as well as the production of small items such as caskets, cigarette cases, women's hairpins, small jewelry (birch burl). Use on knife handles is considered good taste, and also appreciated by wood carvers for its unique texture.
It is impossible to find two identical pieces of burl, even halves of a sawn burl have a different pattern, the growth is so heterogeneous. It grows on many trees (linden, alder, birch, maple, oak, etc.), but the most valuable and beautiful is birch (from those growing in our latitudes). The build-up is usually small, maximum the size of a volleyball or a large plate.
Cutting some kind of pattern on the cap does not make sense, since the texture clogs everything.
The photo shows birch burl. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a cut of exactly a birch burl (I took these pictures next to the local police station and, as you understand, they wouldn’t give me anything to cut down there ... But I contrived and found a burl of ash, most of the burls are similar in texture and differ only color and size of knot cores.

SUVEL - (aka svil) As the name implies, the outgrowth 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 an annular variety, it covers the tree trunk around the perimeter), it usually grows 2-3 times faster than the tree itself. When sawn, it has a texture similar in pattern to marble and mother-of-pearl (this is the main sign of difference from CAPA, in the future do not confuse suvel and burl).
The presence of mother-of-pearl stains on a polished tree creates a beautiful iridescent picture that glows from the inside. The twist is also poorly processed, like the burl, but not as hard. The size varies from a walnut up to 1.5 meters high (I myself saw one on a birch) and up to 2 meters in diameter (an annular suvel completely covered the tree trunk). In the Vatican, there is a font much more than a meter in diameter, carved from a single piece of suvel. He himself once sat in an armchair carved from suveli. Holds fine thread perfectly, but it is not recommended to cut the suvel. 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 streak. The presence of dark veins and well-defined twisted annual rings. This is a fairytale. BEAUTIFUL, that says it all. The barrel suvel is distinguished by a finer texture and a finer "frosty" pattern. And lighter wood. In terms of strength, the butt suvel is slightly superior to the stem one due to the structural features of the tree trunk. Suvel is strong, beautiful, easily polished and polished. Well-dried and processed, it begins to "glow" from the inside (with proper impregnation with oils, the tree becomes like amber and even a little transparent). Usually has a color from pale yellow to pinkish brown to quite ocher brown. It all depends on the conditions and drying time. Cap has the same colors.
Photos:

As you can see, the cap does not look like a suvel at all.

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

So, how to dry. I must say right away that the "steaming" method is suitable for small pieces of wood. Somewhere in the half of a football ball or a small log.

1. We cut down the growth. We do this with a sharp saw. Otherwise, you will be tormented by sawing, and the tree will begin to shaggy. We do not clean the bark. Do not forget to cover the cut on the tree with oil paint or wax, or something similar.

CUTTING THE GROWTHS IS DESIRABLE IN THE DRY SEASON, IDEALLY - AT THE END OF AUGUST, THE BEGINNING OF SEPTEMBER, BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF Sap Flow.

2. We take an unnecessary pan (bucket), and throw a piece of wood there. The pan is precisely unnecessary, since during the cooking process a very tricky broth is formed, which is then very troublesome to wash. It is better to clean the piece of wood from all sorts of rags of birch bark and other fragile and dangling tails. still fall off.
I consider the birch growth as the most accessible and beautiful, the rest of the growths are cooked using the same technology. The log is accordingly cleaned of any debris and fragile particles. We pour water. It is convenient to do this with a faceted glass (it contains 250 ml). 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 see everything. It doesn't matter if you pour water, cold or hot - it will boil anyway. You can throw a piece of wood into a saucepan no matter how much it is a pity, the volume of a separate piece of wood is important and not the total volume of wood.

3. We take table salt, which is not a pity. We don't make soup. Pour 2 large tablespoons with a top of salt per liter of water (who will count glasses of water ??? Huh?). It is possible and more, no matter how much it is a pity, it's okay, it's impossible to overdo it.
The main thing is that the water should be sugary salty. You can use clean sea water (just clean, otherwise it will be disgusting to smell like mud).
Salt will draw juices from the tree, but the tree will not saturate.

4. We find sawdust of resinous wood species. Spruce, pine, the easiest to get. We take a saw: and forward. We need two powerful handfuls of sawdust (we rake the sawdust with both hands). It is sawdust, and not shavings from a simple hand planer.
The shavings will come from an electric planer (you can get it at the nearest sawmill or cut it 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 smaller the sawdust, the better. We fall asleep in a saucepan. It was possible to take a saucepan and more! Sawdust will give the suveli a pleasant ocher color. From soft pink-yellow to ocher-brown. And also resins will add strength to wood and show texture.

5. When the water boils, reduce the fire and leave it simmering for 6-8 hours, maybe more, as long as you have enough patience.
If the saucepan is large, then you can not turn down the flame, let the water boil and bubble. But you need to watch 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 scum. Scale is best removed 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 wood. Rinse under running water from sawdust. We throw out the water from the pan as useless, but you can leave it for the next time, if you have somewhere to store it. But pouring water is easier. We throw the build-up on the cabinet with nothing on wrapping it. For a day or two, let it cool down.

7 The process of cooking and drying is repeated 2-4 times, depending on the volume of wood.
You can use a pressure cooker to speed up the process. Time is reduced to 4-6 hours.

8. At 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 wood is basically already dry, but let the remaining moisture go.
The tree will "get used" to the atmosphere. After the final drying, the tree will become like a bone, and it will be possible to cut, saw, grind it. 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 an allowance must be made for their removal in subsequent processing.

11. Where to look for growths... Naturally in the forest. BUT! there are no specific places of growth, they grow spontaneously, and the largest and most beautiful growths will be found by the most big-eyed and persistent. This activity is akin to hunting for mushrooms, whoever ran around the forest more and further got more.
Look like that's it. Once again I remind you that large pieces cannot be dried like that. Cracked. Necessarily. Checked.

12. After the tree has finally become accustomed to the atmosphere, you can start working with the workpiece. It is desirable to impregnate the suvel and cap with oil, and if there is a desire, then with wax too. The tree will show the texture, "play" what is called, all the inner beauty will appear.

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

I'm finishing with this, your Serjant.

If you like to go out into nature, probably while walking in the forest, you have seen trees with strange spherical growths on the trunk or near the roots. Such peculiar growths or influxes covered with rough bark are called mouthguards. As a rule, they occur in places of growth of shoots and dormant buds. You can find them on birch, linden, alder, maple, mountain ash, oak, pine, larch, arborvitae, eucalyptus, myrtle, walnut.

cap, growing on a tree trunk, is called a stem, and at the root - a capo root. Kapo-root is found in the forest much more often than the stem and can reach one and a half meters in diameter. According to the shape, the caps are divided into circular, encircling and lateral. Sometimes caps grow so much that they can weigh up to 1 ton.

cap- a rare, very hard and beautiful material with an unusual pattern of fibers, reminiscent of marble in appearance. He was widely known in our country in the XII century. In Rus', dishes were made from it, which they called so - burl. Mostly, these were hollowed out bowls, ladles and brothers. At the beginning of the 19th century, burl, along with valuable tree species, was used for decorative furniture finishing, caskets and snuff boxes were cut out of it, which were then inlaid with gold, mother-of-pearl or ivory and exported to other countries. Due to its unique qualities and extraordinary warmth of perception, cap was highly valued all over the world.

Today cap serves as a material for the manufacture of artistic and decorative products (candlesticks, salt shakers, vases for sweets, fruits and flowers), and is also used for veneering furniture. In terms of hardness, burl is several times greater than ordinary wood and is rather difficult to process, so products from it have to be made manually.

Burl extraction is carried out with great care and only in those cases when it can be cut down entirely. The problem is that it is almost impossible to separate it without damaging the tree itself, so it is best to look for burl at logging sites among already cut trees. The cap is cut with a part of the trunk to prevent it from cracking when it dries, and also because otherwise it is simply impossible to separate it from the tree due to its high hardness. Depending on the size of the future product, the cap is sawn into plates. Usually, on a fresh cut, the pattern is pale and inconspicuous, so the cap is steamed. After drying, the cap is ready for work. As a rule, burl products are coated with a special varnish or natural beeswax, which gives them a matte finish and conveys the warmth of the wood well.

In its raw form, the burl can be used as a decorative element. For example, graceful small mouthguards can be mounted on the wall of the room, either separately or as part of an original composition, and large knotted mouthguards can be placed on the floor or on a special stand as a natural decoration that emphasizes the eco-friendly character of the room style.

Of all naturally occurring burls, only 10% can be used to create decorative and artistic products, while the period from the beginning to the end of its processing can last several years. It is impossible to reduce these terms even with the help of modern technologies because of negative impact for color and natural properties material. All these features of the burl determine its uniqueness, high value and originality, making it a real exotic, a symbol of ancient traditions in the modern world.

If, while walking through the forest, you notice a growth on a birch, what is the name of this phenomenon and how can it be used, wood carving experts will definitely tell you. They already know exactly how to distinguish a mushroom from a high-quality decorative material. If you don’t have such acquaintances, then having delved a little into this topic, you can easily distinguish them on your own.

What causes a growth on a birch?

The reasons for the appearance of a build-up on a birch are different depending on the nature of this neoplasm:

In the case when the nature of the growth is due to infection of the plant, then the cause may be spores of fungi or harmful bacteria;
Appearance caps (cap) is due to the fact that the bud with a new branch cannot break through the thick bark, however, the processes that have begun in the tree trunk due to growth contribute to the delivery of the bud instead of the origin nutrients. Accordingly, favorable conditions are created there and more and more buds appear, which also cannot be born;
The cause of the growth on the trunk of a plant can also be a fungus or mechanical damage to the trunk.

Thus, various fungal pathogens are the most dangerous for birch. They provoke a large number of wood diseases, including growths. But besides this, they can cause damage to the bark and leaves. Much less often, the causes of diseases are bacteria and even more rarely, pathologies in the development of the tree itself.

However, it must be remembered that external causes such as broken barrels or contaminated environment make them the most vulnerable. Therefore, it is in our power to take care of nature:

Reduce emissions harmful substances in atmosphere;
Do not hammer nails into trees when outdoors;
Do not peel live bark from the trunk for crafts;
Do not injure or damage the barrel.

Perhaps this way we will help the trees not to get sick.

What is chaga?

If you noticed a growth on a tree trunk, you were probably interested in what it is. In the case when the outgrowths are black and irregular shape, and the color of the inside is from brown to red, most likely it is birch mushroom - chaga.

He is able to settle deciduous trees, For example:

Rowan;
Alder;
maple;
birch.

As a result of contact with the affected area of the bark of a pathogenic fungus, chaga begins to develop in the stem of the plant. It looks like a comb-like growth with veins inside. Gradually, it absorbs the tree and penetrates deeper into the trunk. It happens that chaga encircles a tree in a circle. As a result, it dies.

Chaga grows for at least twenty years and at the same time feeds on birch sap and beneficial substances found in wood.

Unfortunately, such mushrooms often massively affect birch groves And deciduous forests. However, in traditional medicine they are highly valued. On their basis, decoctions, means for inhalation and other dosage forms are made.

They help a lot in the treatment of various diseases:

Oncology;
Women's and men's diseases;
With weakened immunity;
Joint problems.

However, before you start collecting tree fungus, read the contraindications.

What is a cap?

Cap is another type of growth on a tree. He is a bunch of unblown branches and buds under a layer of bark.

From the natural thorns on the body of the capa, small branches can grow, which is why it is popularly called the "witch's broom."

Most often, such lesions of the cortex can be found on:

birches;
Dubach;
aspens;
Nuts.

Such formations can occur on a tree as a result of a failure in its development. This can be affected by both natural conditions and harm caused from outside. Sometimes this tree disease is inherited.

Caps are extremely rare. In order to find it, it is necessary to examine up to several thousand trees.

Thus, it is a piece of modified wood. Craftsmen use it to produce various wood crafts because of the beautiful natural coloring of the insides. It should be noted that the burl is much stronger than the wood of the tree on which it grows.

Chaga and capa: differences

Having become acquainted with two types of growths on trees, you can easily see their difference:

The cause of the appearance of the fungus is a sterile, that is, a barren spore that has fallen on an injured plant, while a cap is the result of an improper development of the tree itself;
The mushroom has a corresponding structure, and the burl is made of wood;
The fungus has medicinal properties, burl is used for decorative purposes and is a valuable item for wood carvers;
Chaga eventually leads the plant to death, and with a burl the plant can live for a long time, since such an outgrowth, although painful for a birch, is not an infectious disease;
Chaga can be treated, but the cap can only be cut off;
Chaga is quite common, while cap is a rare sight;

Thus, the difference between these two types of birch growths is quite large. And now you can easily tell them apart.

What is a suvel?

Suvel is another type of tree growth. It is considered a cancer of the trunk and represents numerous shifts in different directions of the annual rings of the tree. It looks like a spherical growth on the trunk of the same structure as the plant itself and is covered with bark. It grows quite quickly and can reach huge sizes.

The reason for the appearance of such a tree disease may be swipe on wood, its damage or fungus. Scientists have not come to a common conclusion on this issue. At the same time, it can be found on a birch much more often than, for example, cap.

In terms of density, the suvel is inferior to the burl, although it is often called a tree bone. This name is associated with its appearance in the context.

When cutting, the inner part of the growth shimmers with a delicate gloss and has a beautiful mysterious pattern of annual rings. The color scheme and pattern are not similar to each other. For these properties, cabinetmakers love suvel no less than cap.

Such a formation can be made artificially by pulling a tree trunk with wire. After a while, you will see a neoplasm on the trunk. But remember, even if a tree is able to live with such a pathology, any growths for him are a disease. And after you cut the growth, it will become much more susceptible to the influence of bacteria and fungi.

Thus, one of the tree diseases is the growth on the birch. What is the name of this or that education can be determined as appearance, and on the insides on the cut. In this case, the normal development of the tree in any case is already disrupted, which can lead to additional infection or death.

Video: birch growths - cap and suvel

In this video, dendrologist Leonid Lozhkin will show what growths are on trees and how they can be classified:

Kap - these are growths and thickenings that are found on the trunks of birch, maple, oak, walnut, pine, etc. There are such influxes in places of tissue growth:

Its name comes from the Slavic "cap" - head. And indeed the cap resembles on a tree human head. Cap is found on the branches of old trees, on trunks. There is also a kapo-root, this is a burl that formed at the root of the tree. The largest kapo-roots reach a diameter of 2m. Furniture is often made from capo root:

As it is an extremely durable and extremely decorative material, which is valued on a par with precious wood. The texture of its pattern on the 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 cap than in the capo root, so its texture is more expressive:

Burl is harvested only from fallen trees in the places of sawmills. After the burl is cut, it is freed from bark, knots, resin. Then the workpiece is boiled in a 5% solution of common salt. The duration of boiling depends on the diameter of the workpiece: up to 10 cm in diameter is boiled for about an hour, large workpieces 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 the remnants of the bark. Boiling makes the texture of the pattern more expressive. Then the blanks are dried for several weeks indoors, or for several hours in an oven or on a radiator. After that, the cap is sawn into plates. After that, they give all free rein to fantasy, making sure that your ideas do not contradict the natural beauty of wood, emphasizing its structure. Inner part products are chosen with an adze, semicircular chisels, cranberries. When finishing the product, excess knots are removed, trying to reveal the play of different layers of wood, polished with sandpaper. Small cracks can be puttied by mixing small sawdust with PVA glue. If desired, the product can be tinted with stains or natural dyes, such as onion skins, alder cones, etc. You can cover the finished product with varnish or wax mastic.

Beautiful caskets, smoking pipes, chess, knife handles are made from burl: