The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

gramophoneshane wrote:Why do Americans call BURR walnut, burl walnut? It's been BURR walnut all over the world for centuries.
It's almost as if some uneducated dumb-dumb that couldn't spell got it wrong long ago, & the name stuck. Or maybe a Burl Ives fan renamed it?

Does anyone know when & why the name was changed?

I suspect it was for the same reason that "buck naked" became "butt naked," "quartered oak" has devolved to "tiger oak," "frustrated" is often "flustrated," "anyway" if often "anyways," "couldn't care less" is usually "could care less," "all intents and purposes" becomes "all intensive purposes..." I must admit that - being an American - I've never heard of burr walnut!

George P.

Ain't nobody never telled me nuthin bout no BURR walnut. It probly dat there BURL walnut you seems to be confusin' it with.

Makes me wish now I had purchased a beautiful late acoustic columbia in walnut a fellow had at a flea market and was dying to sell. It got down to 130.00 and I didn't take it but ever since wished I had. I think the issues with the reproducers being poor quality scared me off. However they must have improved them because my 810 viva tonal was very solid to disassemble when I rebuilt it long ago.

Larry

I'm baffled how anyone could refer to this example as a 'minty' or should that be just plain old MINT?

To my eyes, it is not possible to tell from the resolution and size of those pictures provided, if this example has been completely refinished or not? It could be a stunning example or it could be very disappointing in the flesh or can that be flash?

It's not always easy to determine the originality of the condition from photographs at the best of times but these pictures are particularly small and lit in such a way as to not 'tell the complete story'.

I'm with you, Steve. I suspected "refinish" almost right off the bat. Impossible to tell for sure without seeing either better pics of the machine itself in person.

Sean

Steve wrote:I'm baffled how anyone could refer to this example as a 'minty' or should that be just plain old MINT?

Would that be pepperminty or spearminty

Actually, I don't think it should be either. Coins are made at a mint, furniture & phonographs are not.

According to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, the word "burl" refers to the "hard, woody, often flattened hemispherical outgrowth on a tree" as well as to the wood or veneer derived from this part of a tree. Burls are most often found at ground level, near the root system. That was always my understanding of the term. The description of "burled" wood refers to either actual wood of this description or wood having the distinctive appearance of actual burl wood. This appearance is quite different from that of the rest of the wood from the tree's trunk or branches. Tobacco pipes are often made of burl wood because it is decorative and extremely hard and holds up well in this application.

Yet everywhere else, burr walnut is obtained from the BURR of a walnut tree. America is the only place you'll find it called a burl. Even in African is Burr walnoot, arre burr in Albanian, Burr opex in Bulgarian, Burr oraha in Croatian, Burr valnød in Danish etc etc..
I guess someone over there changed it long ago because it rhymes with curl

http://www.graftedwalnuts.co.uk/burr.ihtml

In case anyone is still interested in determining the value of the high-end Grafanolas, our own board member fonograph has listed for sale in the Yankee Trader section a nice Columbia Model 200 in mahogany for $750.

http://www.mountain-maid.net/Phonographs.html

I did not know about this "Mountain Maid" site before. They seem to have some very nice phonos for sale there.