# Two burly Tree IDs



## QuillandQuiver (Jan 17, 2022)

It's winter where my parents live in Maryland, so I have no leaves to go off of but I found two beautifully burly trees that are both dead.  If you're wondering, I'm not turning an entire tree into pen blanks. But I will certainly be using some burl off of them once they're cut down (for slabs, etc).

Do any of your trained eyes know what kind of trees these are? They are different from each other and all I have is a picture if the tree and a picture of the bark. I've been told the first is a maple...

Help would be appreciated!


~Cale


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## MRDucks2 (Jan 17, 2022)

The first certainly appears to be a maple to me. The second is more difficult but could be maple, also.


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## KMCloonan (Jan 17, 2022)

My first impression, once I saw the bark was Maple. Probably Silver Maple.


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## Dusty (Jan 17, 2022)

The bark sure looks to be Maple to me.


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## Larryreitz (Jan 17, 2022)

The bark on the second one looks like sugar maple, quite common here in CT.


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## SabertoothBunny (Jan 18, 2022)

Could be a few species, without leaves I personnaly cannot say.


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## PatrickR (Jan 18, 2022)

Whatever they are you will get a lot of burl from them.


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## MRDucks2 (Jan 18, 2022)

PatrickR said:


> Whatever they are you will get a lot of burl from them.


I see a couple of potential burls on each tree, but I believe a lot of them are callous’s, too.


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## QuillandQuiver (Mar 3, 2022)

After Harvesting a small burly slice and letting it dry, here's what was inside the first tree: Does this help clarify what kind of Maple it might be?


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## MRDucks2 (Mar 3, 2022)

I like what you ended up with, and others may disagree, but I am not quite feeling maple out of it. Did it have any smell when you cut it up?


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## QuillandQuiver (Mar 3, 2022)

@MRDucks2 — Now that you say it, it did have a smell, almost sweet (but not quite, if that makes sense). Then again, I like the smell of most cut woods!


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## QuillandQuiver (Mar 3, 2022)

I did find this picture of some spalted maple burl blanks for sale at woodturningz.com
They look very similar...


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## MRDucks2 (Mar 3, 2022)

The shape and nature of the burl itself doesn’t strike me as maple, which tends to be a more full, bulbous burl. In addition, the surface of the burl is often more smooth than yours, which make me think your burl was putting off some shoots at one time. 

Something it makes me think of something I have cut up, but I can’t quite place it. I asked about smell because I have done some sassafras, but it tends to have a rather coarse grain. Redbud also came to mind. 

The ID on the WoodTurningz photo will verify, but most of their maple burl is stabilized which gives it about 2 shades darker color than it started out. 

By the same token, I did cut up a lot spalted maple last year so maybe you are right.


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