In particular, the burl wood captivated James and was the basis of his first business, West Aussie Woodcraft’s. A business based on jarrah burl wood tables, clocks and smaller lines of souvenirs. 

Burl wood is actually a very rare phenomenon, caused by a virus or bacteria, and probably only forming itself on approximately one in 20,000 trees. In Europe it has always been in high demand, and highly priced, originally being used to embellish luxury cars and adorning furniture such as grandfather clocks. Sadly in most countries around the world it is a thing of the past but recent times has been reconstructed using multi colored veneers in a finger jointing, rolled then re-veneer technique.

Early in his career James recognized the value and rarity of burl wood, focusing on collecting them whenever opportunity arose and finances permitted. Today Burl wood is the hallmark of Boranup Furniture with most pieces having a small subtle burl inlay, burl paneled doors or in some rare instances one glorious solid slab as a dining or coffee table.