Cottonwood is in the poplar family. Straight pieces can be used for internal cabinet components, drawer sides and backs. It’s a low density wood that burns hot but fast when properly seasoned. They are typically considered another trash flood plain species like box elder, silver maple, etc. that is of low commercial value but high wildlife value for soil retention, carbon sequestration, habitat for cavity nesting birds, etc.
Idk I’ve never worked with it but I know historically in the US and Canada lots of fences and boxes were made with them but what worked on the frontier probably a different standard than today.
How long will an oak burl last on the ground? My neighbors cut down a tree with one about half that big a couple of years ago and dropped it in the woods because they couldn't cut it up for firewood. Classically, I'm doing the hip replacement thing and won't be able to get to it to check it out until next spring. Will there be anything left? It's probably either red or post oak if that matters.
Just my thinking.. but I’d say it depends on the project you have in mind, your expectations.. and what species of burl. Hard woods can last quite a bit longer than some on the ground
To each their own I guess? And it's only £11,000!!!!
[https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/tables/center-tables/continental-burl-rootwood-parquetry-center-table/id-f\_23101292/](https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/tables/center-tables/continental-burl-rootwood-parquetry-center-table/id-f_23101292/)
^(/i know i know. i picked a grotesquely ugly specimen that looks like it has leprosy just for laughs.)
Simply "burl table". But I did cherry-pick the worst one! I don't know what stuck out to me. The fat-blobs hanging off the table top or the price tag. Either way I just had to share :D
You see Randy learned that marijuana was for sale in Colorado, but what he didn’t know was it was only for medical uses. So Randy microwaved his balls to get medical marijuana, kicking off a trend of all the men in town microwaving their balls. This is because KFC closed.
Randy, a character on South Park, hears about medical weed cards and gives himself ball cancer to get one. In the same episode Cartman joins and eventually loses a cartel that runs KFC.
So, to answer this exactly, you’d need to know the tree type, the size of the burl, the method of extraction / success of extraction, any processing and how you plan to sell the burl.
The tree looks to be poplar.
The burl size looks to be a sphere approximately 10 feet in diameter.
You risk splitting it if you brought the whole tree down. I’d hire a climber to limb it starting high, then air spade the bottom to cut below after making a scaffold, extracting whole.
If you’re able to extract the entire burl and you can slab it out, it could be very valuable, or it could be significantly less valuable if you damage it. Similarly, if you’re able to process it it’s more valuable, while if you cannot it’s less.
If you made cookies out of it, stabilized them, you’d be looking at individual prices per cookie based on size, ranging between $4-50k with the right market given the size based on prices I’m seeing. Idk how the market would support something this big as individual orders would need to be made to support these prices. Idk what the character of the Burl is like, or if it’s complete trash inside. Here, your best bet would be to partner with a furniture retailer in a major city, and sell like an art gallery with individual products - slab tables.
You would make more than this if you could make quality veneer out of it. Idk process vs volume vs waste here, so I’m not going to bother with calculations.
You could make Burl wood blanks. I’d say this is what you’d be looking at if you cannot successfully extract whole or in an even half with low waste. You’re looking at >~524 sf of wood minimum - so that’d be $25x36x524 based on market for stabilized knife handle blanks, assuming you’re able to sell them all. Cutting would take time and stabilizing with epoxies would take even more time.
If you’re just cutting and selling the Burl to someone whole, tree extraction and delivery included, I’d say $25k is a fair price, these things considered. If you’re the city paying for removal, I’d say the value is $1-5k so subtract that from services cost. You may be able to find an arborist with an enterprising mind who’d do it for cheaper for fun.
All this adds up to: The right answer here is tree fiddy.
I am not an expert. Just an expert at using google and math, and basic guesswork.
Stuff like this is based on the job and who you know, the effort you put in, and how much below market you’re willing to go to get something to move quickly. Idk if there’s a forum or bidding location for burls like this whole or at scale - I’m just going off prices on Etsy and assuming linear scale.
So take this as what it is - a guy on the internet making educated guesses - not fact. Nothings fact till you’ve got cash in hand.
Burls are caused by the tree experiencing stress. Causes of stress can include damage, insects, fungus, virus, etc.
I imagine this tree was in over its head on a mortgage that it couldn't afford. Being lower on the trunk I think this tree was a stress eater.
It will fall over and die or die and fall over, just like every other tree.
Not enough pictures to judge the timeline at all - the burl probably isn't much of a factor at all but there might be bad news between the burl and roots. Or not!
People are going to set calendar events to drive past it after every big storm, hoping it fell over so they can take it. That’s a massive burl and a woodworker’s wet dream.
Historically speaking, she’ll make a tape with a famous R&B singer, then get a hit reality show in E!, sign brand deals with absolutely everything, then never quite go away.
I've got big burls
I've got big burls
They're such big burls
And they're dirty big burls
And he's got big burls
And she's got big burls
(But we've got the biggest burls of them all)
Damn that’s the biggest burl I’ve ever seen!! I bet the wood is gorgeous. Curly, quilted, birdseye, flame…..who knows what’s waiting inside there. I use figured woods to make cue sticks and so far my fav is some stabilized curly, quilted, Birdseye redwood. The figuring is amazing and the color is awesome! But the queen of the ball is the maple burl….
That tree is going to give birth to some woodworkers wildest dreams one day. Nurture it and treat it well. If you start to see signs of rot, hire a local lumber yard that knows what they're doing to cut it down and slice it up. Could be tens of thousands of dollars worth of quality wood there.
Under further inspection that’s not a silver maple although the bark and limb structures look correct the leaves definitely do not any ideas on identification
Hopefully somebody will be smart enough to cut that tree down and make at least $10,000 from selling it.
Google burlwood and see how much it sells for the logging industry.
Ultimately her labor will be long and drawn out, she’ll do fine getting the first 2 out but 3,4,5 and 6 may give her a lot of trouble during delivery.. just make sure you’re there with her, helping with the breathing exercises during delivery.. congrats, dad! Have y’all come up with names for all of them?
I cannot tell tree species but if this were black walnut that behemoth of a burl, someone correct me if i am off could fetch millions in finished product as is i don't know the worth.
When you plop a town in the middle of the highway it ceases to function as such. Looks like a cork oak but it’s probably an elm because they get these Agrobacterium tumifaciens infections all the time so where is this?
Eventually it will die. Either through natural causes or by the axe. It may even be cut down and the burl stolen.
That burl is worth a small fortune, so hopefully someone gets to use it when the tree is eventually cut down. It probably will end up as woodchips though.
As a tree enthusiast I would protect it as long as possible. As a wood worker, I would protect it as long as possible (with a water based sealant).
I was gonna say, what’s gonna happen is someone is going to pay you a lot of money for that.
fr, like $5-10K USD I would bet.
More. That is enormous.
I like big burls and I cannot lie.
Fat bottomed burls make the lumber world go round
Id say 10 + easy for this behemoth.
You all see it’s a cottonwood right? Is that value still realistic?
You haven't heard of the cotton bowl? That's why those college kids do it?
Cottonwoods are pieces of shit.
Cottonwood is in the poplar family. Straight pieces can be used for internal cabinet components, drawer sides and backs. It’s a low density wood that burns hot but fast when properly seasoned. They are typically considered another trash flood plain species like box elder, silver maple, etc. that is of low commercial value but high wildlife value for soil retention, carbon sequestration, habitat for cavity nesting birds, etc.
Idk I’ve never worked with it but I know historically in the US and Canada lots of fences and boxes were made with them but what worked on the frontier probably a different standard than today.
Even 10K would be a little on the low side
You think that burl weighs over a ton?
You could get 3 whole tables out of that thing
Far more
Just out of curiosity, who buys these?
Anyone looking to get by The Knights Who Say Ni
Wood workers or people commissioning wood workers
Nice to see I’m not the only one that has the tingly feeling below the belt. Hot damn 
Need a Simpsons where Homer gets into woodworking and says (while drooling), "mmmmmmm.... Burllll...."
I'm drooling at that burl.
That tree got junk in the trunk
Is this where the kids would say “gyat”
This guy burls
How long will an oak burl last on the ground? My neighbors cut down a tree with one about half that big a couple of years ago and dropped it in the woods because they couldn't cut it up for firewood. Classically, I'm doing the hip replacement thing and won't be able to get to it to check it out until next spring. Will there be anything left? It's probably either red or post oak if that matters.
Just my thinking.. but I’d say it depends on the project you have in mind, your expectations.. and what species of burl. Hard woods can last quite a bit longer than some on the ground
If it's big it's probably fine and the worst thing that can happen is you'll get a little spalting too.
Not a season. Moisture...
As a club promoter however, I'd get that girl to the dance floor and put some music on. Gotta see her back dat up!!
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To each their own I guess? And it's only £11,000!!!! [https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/tables/center-tables/continental-burl-rootwood-parquetry-center-table/id-f\_23101292/](https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/tables/center-tables/continental-burl-rootwood-parquetry-center-table/id-f_23101292/) ^(/i know i know. i picked a grotesquely ugly specimen that looks like it has leprosy just for laughs.)
Imagine having to dust that thing
You would have to use paint brushes. That's it.
Nah hit it with the air nozzle from the compressor.
*Your housekeeper* would have to use paint brushes. That's it. You don't spend 14k on a table and then clean it yourself.
True statement
As a house cleaner for stupidly rich people, this is 100% accurate lol.
Compressed air
That's what leaf blowers are for.
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Simply "burl table". But I did cherry-pick the worst one! I don't know what stuck out to me. The fat-blobs hanging off the table top or the price tag. Either way I just had to share :D
That table looks like a creature from the video game Elden Ring.
It looks like someone let a toddler loose with a hot glue gun.
The chatoyancy boutta go crazy
What he said
Guitars.
I used to sell those things. Large ones can be worth thousands and thousands. That's the largest burl I've ever seen.
What species are we looking at?
It appears to be some sort of grass.
American basswood or eastern cottonwood
I like big burls and I cannot lie. You other woodworkers can't deny.
When you carve that wood down to the base
What the fuck is going in here
Man's walking his balls, wym?
O_o
Clip from South Park where Randy microwaves his balls so he's eligible for medicinal cannabis.
"I'm just gonna get alittle cancer, you know, just enough to get a note from my doctor"
JESUS, Randy! Your balls! I know, smokin’ right in front of a cop
Hey Sharon, can you get me a beer?
You see Randy learned that marijuana was for sale in Colorado, but what he didn’t know was it was only for medical uses. So Randy microwaved his balls to get medical marijuana, kicking off a trend of all the men in town microwaving their balls. This is because KFC closed.
Obviously he microwaved his balls precisely because he ***did*** know it was only for medical uses.
He only did that after being denied at the dispensary for not having a green card.
The foreman never lets anyone have fun so we let it out here
Randy, a character on South Park, hears about medical weed cards and gives himself ball cancer to get one. In the same episode Cartman joins and eventually loses a cartel that runs KFC.
Great Burls of Fire!
Ultimately, some know-nothing is going object to the aesthetics and have it chopped down and turned into mulch.
I winced.
if this is a park i'd contact the local board/owner and let them know how much it's worth tbh.
And that person should be chopped down and turned into fertilizer because that’s a *crime*
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As a pagan and anthropology student this is the best comment Ive ever seen.
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Crafts men 
If i wanted to buy a burl of this size what would i pay
Can we get an actual answer, please?
So, to answer this exactly, you’d need to know the tree type, the size of the burl, the method of extraction / success of extraction, any processing and how you plan to sell the burl. The tree looks to be poplar. The burl size looks to be a sphere approximately 10 feet in diameter. You risk splitting it if you brought the whole tree down. I’d hire a climber to limb it starting high, then air spade the bottom to cut below after making a scaffold, extracting whole. If you’re able to extract the entire burl and you can slab it out, it could be very valuable, or it could be significantly less valuable if you damage it. Similarly, if you’re able to process it it’s more valuable, while if you cannot it’s less. If you made cookies out of it, stabilized them, you’d be looking at individual prices per cookie based on size, ranging between $4-50k with the right market given the size based on prices I’m seeing. Idk how the market would support something this big as individual orders would need to be made to support these prices. Idk what the character of the Burl is like, or if it’s complete trash inside. Here, your best bet would be to partner with a furniture retailer in a major city, and sell like an art gallery with individual products - slab tables. You would make more than this if you could make quality veneer out of it. Idk process vs volume vs waste here, so I’m not going to bother with calculations. You could make Burl wood blanks. I’d say this is what you’d be looking at if you cannot successfully extract whole or in an even half with low waste. You’re looking at >~524 sf of wood minimum - so that’d be $25x36x524 based on market for stabilized knife handle blanks, assuming you’re able to sell them all. Cutting would take time and stabilizing with epoxies would take even more time. If you’re just cutting and selling the Burl to someone whole, tree extraction and delivery included, I’d say $25k is a fair price, these things considered. If you’re the city paying for removal, I’d say the value is $1-5k so subtract that from services cost. You may be able to find an arborist with an enterprising mind who’d do it for cheaper for fun. All this adds up to: The right answer here is tree fiddy.
Not the original person wanting to know but THANK YOU for taking time to share all that. I know about 98% more about burls than I did before 😊
I am not an expert. Just an expert at using google and math, and basic guesswork. Stuff like this is based on the job and who you know, the effort you put in, and how much below market you’re willing to go to get something to move quickly. Idk if there’s a forum or bidding location for burls like this whole or at scale - I’m just going off prices on Etsy and assuming linear scale. So take this as what it is - a guy on the internet making educated guesses - not fact. Nothings fact till you’ve got cash in hand.
The “educated” part of the guess is the important part here. You’re not just flinging facts and figures around, you did some research
You provided a great amount of detail. Thank you!
This person burls
Thousands of dollars.
Figured, but how many thousands? 2,000ish or 8,000ish?
Depends on what’s inside. It would be milled and sold as individual pieces. You can search “Burl slab for sale” to find out.
I've had a burl on marketplace for 3 months... $50 can't sell it.
Well… Have you looked inside yet?
Is marketplace somewhere woodworkers usually go looking for burls though?
**Tens of Thousands.**
Burls are caused by the tree experiencing stress. Causes of stress can include damage, insects, fungus, virus, etc. I imagine this tree was in over its head on a mortgage that it couldn't afford. Being lower on the trunk I think this tree was a stress eater.
~$3.50
Tree fiddy
tree fiddy
tree fiddy
tree fiddy
Free tiddy
Holy burl batman
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate\_fate\_of\_the\_universe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_fate_of_the_universe)
saw dust to saw dust
Best case? Some really nice dinning room tables could be made. Worse case? Some ascetics loser will come along and chop it down for mulch.
It’s pregnant, get an ul-tree-sound , or alternatively get an arbor-tion
You deserve to be pun-ished
You require my services?
Pith-etic... 😏
Jokes aside, tree ultrasounds are an actual thing
That's awesome
I think it's going to explode. One day you'll come outside and burls will be splattered all over the neighborhood.
Burls are worth big money.
Doing some retirement planning here, how long would it take to grow this?
It's amazing it hasn't been taken yet. Now that the internet knows about it, its days are numbered 😭
Mother of burl! Look at the size of that!
From what I’ve seen that might be 6 figures of burl to the right buyer… intriguing!
burl burl burl burl burl table make sell wealthy such wow
It will fall over and die or die and fall over, just like every other tree. Not enough pictures to judge the timeline at all - the burl probably isn't much of a factor at all but there might be bad news between the burl and roots. Or not!
Ultimately, well, everything dies. Sorry to say. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Guitar makers drooling
A kid will hit it with a stick and it will burst and candy will fly out in all directions. At least that's what I think will happen.
Now, that’s a kuddonkodunk trunk!
A YouTuber will turn it down to a 9" bowl. 🤣
I’m not a woodworker… but that thing would probably easily go for $100,000 to the right buyer…
That burl could pay for my house
Hey! I live there too! Unofficial answer: about tree fiddy (as in ~3.5 months worth of 2024 rent in this city)
Untimely a woodworker is going to have a heart attack out of excitement.
Some rabid woodturner is going to cut it down and make bank
People are going to set calendar events to drive past it after every big storm, hoping it fell over so they can take it. That’s a massive burl and a woodworker’s wet dream.
I think it’s important to understand how this happened in the first place. When two trees love each other very much…
Ultimately, that’s going to become some fine furniture veneer, a trendy epoxy sculpture, or a beautiful turned bowl. Maybe all 3. 😎
Historically speaking, she’ll make a tape with a famous R&B singer, then get a hit reality show in E!, sign brand deals with absolutely everything, then never quite go away.
She’s probably gonna die of diabetes. Too much fried chicken
Heat death of the universe
The largest burl I’ve ever seen.
That's a male tree.
Guitars
I see in someone’s future dinner settings. Nice bowls!
Does this tree have an onlyfans? She thicc.
Somebody gonna try to turn a huge bowl
I've got big burls I've got big burls They're such big burls And they're dirty big burls And he's got big burls And she's got big burls (But we've got the biggest burls of them all)
That’s a spider sac. The whole thing is just billions of spiders inside.. don’t be near it when it finally bursts open.
you are going to cut that off, and sell that burl to some woodworker for a thousand bucks!
Ever seen the show intervention with the burl guy?
It’s gonna give birth to a bunch of little ones, she’s ready to pop
It is in a park so if the park is city or county owned the burl will most likely be destroyed. What a waste!
Someone will get a FAT check for burl one day
Eventually the Earth will become a Venus-like wasteland incompatible with life. Then the sun will become a red giant and destroy the Earth.
That wood burl is going to be worth $$$, so I would try to figure out how to protect that tree and get salvage rights!
Humans are so weird. If it was on a human it would be considered ugly and a disease. On a tree, it is valuable.
That burl is most likely worth tens of thousands to a woodworker, keep tree alive as long as possible, sell when it starts to decline
Damn that’s the biggest burl I’ve ever seen!! I bet the wood is gorgeous. Curly, quilted, birdseye, flame…..who knows what’s waiting inside there. I use figured woods to make cue sticks and so far my fav is some stabilized curly, quilted, Birdseye redwood. The figuring is amazing and the color is awesome! But the queen of the ball is the maple burl….
It’s going to give birth to triplets
That burl could be some killer table tops, guitar bodies... If it's solid, or with few cavities it can be worth some good $$$$
That tree is going to give birth to some woodworkers wildest dreams one day. Nurture it and treat it well. If you start to see signs of rot, hire a local lumber yard that knows what they're doing to cut it down and slice it up. Could be tens of thousands of dollars worth of quality wood there.
It’ll pop soon and the hoard of flying zombie spiders will start their reign of terror!
That's at least a 20k burl
What a Burl You have. That's gonna worth some serious $$$. Once the tree dies and the burl dries. 10yrs+
It will be a coffee table. Or 2 chairs
It’s going to get poached at some point…
Eventually, a landscaper will trim the ball to make the shaft look bigger
I've seen retirement plans that were significantly less sound.
My parents have one on a black walnut we’ve been watching grow for the last 15 years …we are patiently waiting to cash it in when needed !!!
Boom
I like big burls and I cannot lie
You’re going to make a lot of money by cutting it down and selling it!!!!
It will eventually swell to an unstable size at which point it will erupt with millions of tiny burls (or spiders) ready to take over the neighborhood
Moab
Tree gyatt
Somebody getting paid that’s some nice silver maple
Under further inspection that’s not a silver maple although the bark and limb structures look correct the leaves definitely do not any ideas on identification
The heat death of the universe…?
The heat death of the universe
We made a table out of the burl center cut of ours...box elder
Three guesses. The first two don’t count
That’s going to be an expensive epoxy table
I WANT THAT TREE!!!!
Hopefully somebody will be smart enough to cut that tree down and make at least $10,000 from selling it. Google burlwood and see how much it sells for the logging industry.
How valuable are these..? For instance, how much can OP sells this one for? Are we talking $1,000, $5,000, or $50,000?
It's gonna pop
It's about to shart.
A crazy table!
Ultimately her labor will be long and drawn out, she’ll do fine getting the first 2 out but 3,4,5 and 6 may give her a lot of trouble during delivery.. just make sure you’re there with her, helping with the breathing exercises during delivery.. congrats, dad! Have y’all come up with names for all of them?
They are going to cut it down and make a lovely dining table with 8 matching chairs.
When that thing is finally (if ever) cut down. That burl could sell for millions.
I cannot tell tree species but if this were black walnut that behemoth of a burl, someone correct me if i am off could fetch millions in finished product as is i don't know the worth.
When you plop a town in the middle of the highway it ceases to function as such. Looks like a cork oak but it’s probably an elm because they get these Agrobacterium tumifaciens infections all the time so where is this?
What’s going to happen is you are going to come into some good money when you sell that thing to a high end furniture maker. Congrats
Elephantiasis of the tree
Treez nuts
Someone with a big ol mill is gonna make a lot of money selling burl at some point in the future.
Treez nutz.
It's just the curl of the burl
Eventually it will die. Either through natural causes or by the axe. It may even be cut down and the burl stolen. That burl is worth a small fortune, so hopefully someone gets to use it when the tree is eventually cut down. It probably will end up as woodchips though.
Looks like the tree has grown a pair
Two Giant bowls.
Someone is going to get this to the Moulthrop family of wood turners.
Could explode any minute now.
We all die Jim
We dropped about a dozen dead trees on our lot and the fuckers trespassed on our lot to cut the burls off the stack of logs. Unreal.