Sometimes painful growths appear on trees, which are popularly called “witch’s broom.” At first glance, this benign formation resembles a human head in shape. That is why it is generally accepted that the name of the growth comes from the ancient Slavic word “cap”. Translated it means “head”.

Where can you find growths on trees?

Caps are found on walnuts and oaks, on aspens, and however, the most common growth is found on birch. Cap is a bundle of thin twigs that grow from a drop-shaped neoplasm. A “witch’s broom” can weigh about a ton.

Stem? This is a growth that is located directly on the tree trunk. What is caporoot? This is a growth that has formed at the very root neck of the tree. Sometimes it can be seen above the earth's surface. An underground drip grows on the roots. It is detected by shoots. The burl releases them in early spring. These shoots are not viable and quickly wither. Sometimes burls are found on tree branches.

The beauty of an amazing material

If you make a cross section of the burl, you can find its structure, in which the cores of the knots are pronounced. The design of such material is always very beautiful. Due to the accumulation of unblown buds, the cut is an amazingly beautiful picture of knots, curls and twisted fibers. Moreover, the design for each burl is strictly individual.

The burl formed on trees with a striped texture of fibers and contrasting color combinations is distinguished by its special beauty. Pine growths have these characteristics. However, they are quite rare on these trees.

Caporoot may have black spots in its texture. They are located among the light stem fibers. These black dots are nothing more than non-viable shoots that release underground neoplasms.

Where is the cap used?

As a material for carving, the build-up on the tree is not of particular value. Its rugged surface and striped, mottled texture interfere with each other. When making crafts in this way, the relief of the carving does not look and the pattern of weaves and stains disappears.

Numerous areas of the burl have a pearlescent tint. That is why this material, which has no particular industrial significance, is valued very highly. Products made from burl are mainly boxes and women's hairpins, cigarette cases and various small jewelry, bowls and chess sets and powder compacts, ink utensils and the material is also used for making knife handles.

What is a burl in industry? This is a material that is used in furniture finishing. In this case, growths formed on trees of exotic species are taken and used as veneer.

What is a cap for a master? This is a material that does not warp, crack, dry out, or swell and is perfectly processed. In addition, it is heavy and durable.

Where can I find a cap?

Growths grow on trees. Therefore, you need to look for them in the forest. However, this is not so simple, because the mouth guards grow spontaneously, and only the most stubborn and big-eyed can see them. The growth can only be cut off with a very sharp saw.
The best place to find burl is at logging sites. There these growths end up in waste. At logging sites, you can also find caporoots, which you simply cannot find in the forest.

Preparing material for work

Cap can be found on various types trees. However, the most beautiful and valuable in our area is the growth that has arisen on a birch.

Burl products are not obtained immediately. The material requires some pre-training. How to process birch burl? To do this, you need to use the steaming method. It is suitable for those growths that are not very large in size. The cap is cleared of debris, placed in an unnecessary pan and filled with water. Then you need to add salt to the container. Per liter of water, its dosage is two tablespoons with top. You can add more salt. She will draw the sap from the tree. With this method, sawdust obtained during the processing of resinous wood species is also used. They need to be poured into a pan. The sawdust gives the burl a pleasant color that can range from yellowish-pink to brownish-buff. The resins found in the sawdust will add strength to the build-up and allow the texture to show up brighter.

After boiling water, the fire should be slightly reduced and the pan left on the stove for six to eight hours. As scale forms, it should be removed. In the process of steaming, it is necessary to monitor the volume of water in the pan and periodically add it.

At the end of the “cooking”, the build-up is washed from sawdust under running water and placed in a closet for a day or two. After this, the entire process must be repeated at least two to four times. During the last cooking, while the tree has not cooled down, you should peel off the bark from it, and at the end put the growth in a closet for one to two weeks.

Once completely dry, the burl will become similar in characteristics to bone. The material prepared in this way is excellent in cutting, sawing and sanding. At the same time, it will not have any foreign odors.

Making boxes

Crafts made from birch burl are not inferior in beauty to souvenirs made from wood and even surpass them. Magnificent boxes are often made from this material.

During the work process, the burl boards are carefully connected to each other, making sure that their texture pattern is similar. A very important operation is the manufacture of wooden hinges. This step requires the precise formation of rounded tenons and grooves on the edges of the lid and body of the product. The hinges must fit tightly and accurately. Another difficult operation is drilling holes. In wooden hinges this is easiest to do with thin steel wire. At the next stage, a lock is cut into the box. The product is almost ready. It should only be puttied, thoroughly dried and the surfaces coated with alkaline varnish. After completing these works, the box is treated with polish and wiped with alcohol. The product is polished until the wood acquires and until all the veins of its amazing texture shine brightly.

Cane decoration

Using a mouthguard, you can make a wonderful gift for an elderly person with your own hands. The work can be done even by a novice. Hollow cylinders, which are previously machined from birch caporoot, should be alternately placed on the tube or metal rod. The parts should fit tightly together, creating the impression of a single whole. Such a cane can be crowned with a carved or smooth birch handle.

Burl bowl

Various souvenirs can be made from wooden growths. Popular burl products are decorative bowls. A rough blank is made from a little raw material. Next, the blank is left to dry. If small cracks form in it, they are smeared with PVA glue. After final drying, the product is given the required shape, it is sanded, polished and varnished.

Kyrgyz walnut is one of the most popular valuable wood species. Some of the lower parts of the walnut trunk, sometimes found in the ground, are thicker than the rest of the trunk and have a very beautiful pattern, suitable for the production of magnificent furniture, so this part of the tree is used to produce very valuable veneer. Walnut wood is used in the manufacture of gun stocks, furniture, parquet, and walnut is often used in interiors and business class cars. The outer layers of the nut are grayish, strongly separated from the dark core, which is of greatest interest for use.

Teak

Teak is found in some tropical countries such as India, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, as well as in Indonesia and Brazil. The wood is pale, rough with a yellowish tint, and has a certain oily odor. The wood is very strong, moderately elastic and hard. Teak is one of the most durable species, terrace board teak can last more than 50 years. Due to this, teak deck boards are often used in the construction of yachts and boats. This wood is perfectly processed and glues well. Teak is very popular in the manufacture of terraces, gazebos, some furniture, saunas and swimming pools.

Burl wood is rare, natural material, developing in the form of growths on the branches, trunks and roots of individual trees, mainly deciduous trees: oak, walnut, maple, poplar, but most often birch. Burls are places where closely spaced accessory and dormant buds grow.

The rarest, most beautiful, durable and, accordingly, the most valuable is the branch burl, which has small sizes(up to 15 cm in diameter) and needle-like structure. The most common, less dense and less valuable is the basal burl - caporoot, which can reach gigantic (up to 1.5...2 m in diameter) sizes. The stem burl occupies an intermediate position between the above varieties.

For a long time it was believed that burl was a painful growth on a tree, resulting from the “squeezing” of the buds by sudden and prolonged spring colds, which sometimes occur during the growing season of the plant.

The appearance of growths was also associated with external damage to the bark at the site of one of the dormant buds, where the excess influx of juices is directed, facilitating their multiple multiplication.

However, scientists have come to the conclusion that the drip is a biologically normal, protective phenomenon. Burl birch is the most valuable variety of Russian downy birch and the formation of burl on it is a naturally inherited process.

As a result of observations, it was established that the health of such a tree is better than that of others, it is more resilient during the period of spring floods and frequent changes in temperature, and is more stable in the wind.

A real burl, having under the bark uneven surface in the form of tubercles, papillae or needles, should be distinguished from the influx (suvel) caused by local deformation of the annual layers of wood. Such influxes have increased density and an interesting, although less impressive, pattern.

The burl has a significantly (50...70%) denser wood than the mother wood with a twisted, multidirectional structure of fibers, which, in combination with a large number of the above-mentioned buds, form an absolutely unique cut pattern.

A unique combination of properties of burl wood:

The limited natural reserves, combined with the above properties, puts this material at the top of its value among other types of wood, with all the species diversity of the flora of our planet.

According to some estimates, 1 tree with a burl accounts for, on average, 3000-5000 ordinary trees without a burl.

Due to the high value of the material, since 1959, the Central Research Institute of Forest Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences has been studying the biology of burl and methods of growing it, which has developed a technology for sowing and growing burl birches. A whole grove of such birches was planted in the Moscow region. Since 1967, burl birch was planted in several forestry enterprises of the Kirov region.

Because of its unique beauty, the burls are called wooden malachite!

In general, the smaller the pattern and the larger the size of the burl, the more expensive it is.

The value of this unique material speaks historical fact, given in the book “Burl Box” (author Nadezhda Perminova): “... in 1837, for a burl growth of twenty pounds (a little more than 8 kg) they paid up to fifty rubles, ...., the same amount was valued at a thoroughbred bull at an agricultural exhibition.”

Today on the world market the price of burl wood (solid wood and veneer) is several times higher than the price of any other wood, including oak, elm, walnut, mahogany and any exotic species.

The unique combination of material properties, limited reserves and the uniqueness of the burl pattern in each product, ultimately, determined the generally recognized, high aesthetic value and corresponding consumer price of products made from this wood, which is used in finishing the most luxurious interiors, as well as in the manufacture of products corresponding to this level of utilitarian items.

Each such product initially contains spirit of elitism.

(based on materials from the book “Kapovaya Box” by N.I. Perminova, Gorky city, Volgo-Vyatka book edition, 1984)

For those who like to work with wood at home, we offer a carving kit. It includes four types of wood, mainly walnut, oak, elm, mahogany, bars measuring 150/200/50mm. The cost is 1500 rubles. You can also buy a 90mm thick walnut stock blank or a knife handle blank from us.

Lamella, veneer and deck

From the edged boards presented on the website we can produce lamellas, deck boards with a thickness of 3 and 10 mm. Production time 2-3 days, cost 350 rubles/m2 excluding array. Cost of deck board 10 mm walnut 2500 rubles/m2.

Stump

From us you can buy elm, walnut or oak stump. Currently in the warehouse there is an oak stump 1.5 m long, with a diameter of 1.2 meters. You can also order a stump of any size. This material can be used for any furniture or interior design. Based on your sketches, we can make chairs, an armchair or a sofa from a large oak tree trunk.

Edged boards available in Moscow

At our warehouse in Moscow you can buy edged board European walnut, elm at the best price.

Edged board is used for the production of most wood products.

The edges perpendicular to the planes of the bases make it possible to conveniently use edged boards for joining in structures, the production of doors, furniture, and stairs.

Also, thanks to its simple shape, edged boards are easy to pack into dense pallets and transport.

Lately products from a semi-edged board come into fashion.

Unedged board available in Moscow

Unedged board is a rare and exclusive material for work; it is a board with uncut edges, a board with a wane.

Unedged board is used for interior solutions and designer furniture.

Thanks to long and thorough drying, humidity and internal stress meet the standards and norms, so sawing and re-gluing such a board does not make sense; it must be used entirely.

Unedged boards are used for bar countertops and solid board tables.

All boards presented on the website are in stock.

Description of wood species

Beech

Valuable wood species with a uniform structure, strength, soft color scheme, can be easily sanded, as well as subsequently painted or tinted in any color. After treatment with hot steam, it becomes flexible and can be easily bent, giving the board the required shape. This feature is quite often used in the manufacture of expensive pieces of furniture, elements of exclusive flooring and finishing.

Oak

Oak - hardwood, mainly grows in our hemisphere. Mature oak wood is yellow-brown in color, becoming darker over the years. Its wood is resistant to moisture, since the structure of the wood is finely porous. Used for production quality furniture, stairs, floors. Oak has a unique and distinctive pattern that gives finished products noble appearance, excellent quality and good wear resistance.

Elm

Elm grows in the southern European part of our country, in Central Asia. It is a core rock with small yellowish-brown outer layers and a brownish-brown core. The unusually beautiful texture and excellent pattern of elm wood is highly valued in furniture and plywood production.

Maple

Maple grows in the Mediterranean and Central Asia, the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. This is a fast growing wood. The trees themselves are large, and the wood is quite dense and hard, and is uniform. Maple can be used to make furniture, doors and musical instruments. Its wood is light, and due to its density, this type of wood is perfectly processed, that is, maple is an excellent material for carving work.

Red tree

The most famous type of wood in the world, very popular in European countries as a material for the production of a huge number of household items - furniture, panels, veneer and plywood, doors, windows, stairs, musical instruments, boxes, figurines, etc.

Kyrgyz Walnut

Teak

Teak is found in some tropical countries such as India, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, as well as in Indonesia and Brazil. The wood is pale, rough with a yellowish tint, and has a certain oily odor. The wood is very strong, moderately elastic and hard. Teak is one of the most durable species; teak decking can last more than 50 years. Due to this, teak deck boards are often used in the construction of yachts and boats. This wood is perfectly processed and glues well. Teak is very popular in the manufacture of terraces, gazebos, some furniture, saunas and swimming pools.

Sapele

Sapele is a valuable wood, it is one of the types of red trees, however, its wood is denser and heavier. Grows mainly in Africa and tropical Asia. Sapele wood has a reddish, sometimes brown tint, the vessels are very small, and the fibers form a striped pattern on a radial cut. Often used in the production of furniture, interior decoration, flooring and various products.

Saxaul

For those who like to cook over an open fire, we brought saxaul wood. Saxaul coals are rightfully considered the best raw material for cooking shashlik, barbecue and use in the tandoor. They produce more “heat” than other types of wood. When using saxaul coals, you can be sure that they will not get into your food. harmful substances, resins and other impurities. Dishes cooked with saxaul have a unique taste and delicate aroma. Saxaul is packaged in boxes weighing 5 kg, this is enough to cook up to 10 kg. meat.

Ash

A deciduous tree growing throughout Europe. It has hard, large-vascular wood with a matte surface, and has a color from grayish-white to yellow. Density – 750 kg/m3. Ash lumber is used in the production of furniture, interior finishing materials, sports equipment.

What are mouth guards and suveli, how do they differ? How and where to prepare them? How to quickly and efficiently dry out growths at home?

Cap

So, first, let's define some concepts.

Cap(aka " 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 a huge number of knots. Extremely beautiful , durable, perfectly sanded and polished.

Numerous individual areas have a pearlescent tint. It has no great industrial value, but is valued very dearly 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 for the production of small items such as caskets, cigarette cases, women's hairpins, and small jewelry (birch burl). The use of burl on knife handles is considered good taste and is also prized 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 growth is usually small, at most the size of a volleyball or a large plate.

There is no point in cutting out any pattern on the burl, since the texture clogs everything up.

The photo shows a birch burl. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a cut of a birch burl (I took these pictures near the local police station, and, as you understand, they wouldn’t give me anything to cut down there ... But I contrived and found an ash burl; most of the burls are similar in texture and They differ only in the color and size of the knot cores).

(svil) - as the name implies, the growth was named because of its structure. "Twisted structure"

This is 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 mouth guard; in the future, do not confuse suvel and cap). The presence of mother-of-pearl stains on a polished tree creates a beautiful iridescent picture that glows from the inside. Svil is also poorly processed, like burl, but not as hard. The size varies from the size of a nut up to 1.5 meters in height (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 clearly 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 durable, beautiful, easy to polish and grind. 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 or pinkish brown to quite ocher brown. It all depends on the conditions and drying time. The cap has the same colors.

As you can see, suvel is completely different from burl.

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

Blank

Where to look for growths... Naturally in the forest. BUT! There are no specific places of growth, they grow spontaneously, and the most beautiful outgrowths will be found by the most big-eyed and persistent. This activity is akin to mushroom hunting - who is more and more e gal forest, he got more.

We cut off the growth. We do this with a sharp saw. Otherwise, you will get tired of sawing, and the tree will begin to become shaggy. We do not peel off the bark.

I highlight in red:

If the growth is "trunk-embracing" or hooded, then it is more correct to refrain from cutting it down - the tree may die. It is advisable to acquire such burls and strands during legal logging, when the tree is doomed anyway.
It is advisable to cut down the growths in dry time of the year, ideally at the end of August, beginning of September, before the start of sap flow.
Don't forget to cover the cut on the tree oil paint or wax or something similar.

Drying

So how to dry? Using the "steaming" method. I’ll say right away that this method is suitable for small pieces of wood: about half soccer ball or a small log.

We take an unnecessary pan (bucket) and throw a piece of wood there. The pot should be taken exactly 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 tatters of birch bark and other fragile and dangling tails - they will fall off anyway.
I consider birch growth as the most accessible and beautiful. The remaining growths are cooked using the same technology. The log is accordingly cleaned of any debris and fragile particles. Pour water. It is convenient to do this with a faceted glass (it contains 250 ml). The water should cover the piece of wood by about a centimeter or two. Naturally, the tree floats up, but let’s press it to the bottom and we’ll see everything. It doesn’t matter what kind of water you pour, cold or hot, it will still boil. You can throw as much wood into a saucepan as you like; the volume of an individual piece of wood is important, not the total volume of wood.
We take table salt, whatever you don’t mind. We're not making soup. Add 2 large tablespoons per liter of water.
with a top of salt. You can do more, as much as you like, it’s okay, it’s impossible to overdo it. The main thing is that the water is sickly salty. You can use sea clean water(precisely clean, otherwise it will smell disgusting of mud). The salt will draw sap from the tree, but will not saturate the tree.
We find sawdust of resinous wood. 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). Precisely sawdust, not shavings from simple hand plane. The shavings will come from an electric planer (you can get them at the nearest sawmill or plan them 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. Sawdust will give the suveli a pleasant ocher color. From soft pink-yellow to ocher-brown. And also see O The wood will add strength and texture to the wood.
When the water boils, reduce the heat and leave it simmering for 6-8 hours, longer if you have the patience. If the saucepan is large, then you don’t have to 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 scale. Scale is best removed immediately. It is very difficult to wash off.
It took 6-8 hours (depending on the size of the piece of wood). We take out the wood. We rinse under running water to remove sawdust. Water from a pot
We throw it out as unnecessary, but you can leave it for next time if you have somewhere to store it. But pouring water is easier. We throw the growth
on the closet, wrapping it in nothing. Let it cool for a day or two.
We repeat the cooking and drying process 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.
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!
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 final drying, the tree will become like bone, and it can be cut, sawed, polished. There will be no foreign smell. It will smell only of wood.
In the process of accelerated drying of wood, you need to remember that it can affect small cracks, and therefore you need to give
allowance for their removal in subsequent processing.
Once again I remind you that large pieces cannot be dried like that. Cracked. Necessarily. Verified.
After the wood has finally gotten used to the atmosphere, we make a product from it. It is desirable to impregnate the suvel and cap with oil, and, if
there is a desire, then wax too. The wood will show its texture, “play,” as they say, and all its inner beauty will appear.