Walnut

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Backwoods Savage

Backwoods Savage

Minister of Fire
Feb 14, 2007
27,811
Michigan
A neighbor I think perhaps has set their sights a bit too high. They do have several walnut trees they want out. The trouble is, I think the largest one might be 12" diameter. I hate to disillusion them so haven't said much but, does anyone have any idea if many might use something this small if they have a lathe?

I fear they will be made into firewood but we'll see.
 
The fellow I use to cut up logs has a 12" diameter minimum. Anything less than that doesn't leave much to work with once you have it squared off. I too, see firewood in their future.
 
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Sure it could be useful. You need to find the right person though. I think you can steam walnut to darken the sapwood, but I might be thinking of something else. A guy who wants to turn pens would love 2" by 2" pieces.
 
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I've seen some nice salad bowls turned from chunks of BL. Not sure of the diameter, I would think less than 12" though.
 
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Small straight grained logs like that often split out into square/rectangular blocks for turning/carving/small boxes/table & chair legs etc quite true with just 4lb hammer & a pair of wedges.Old time chair/tool handle makers preferred wood that was split vs. sawed lumber.Its stronger cause splitting follows the grain.

Quick cleanup with hatchet,maybe a drawknife or spokeshave depending on your preference,set them aside 2-4 yrs to dry out.Much faster/easier than sawing.And any scraps are great kindling,plus any that split too much when drying (sometimes it happens) are burned also.
 
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A froe will make quick work of the riving.

upload_2013-12-30_21-20-50.png
 
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Walnut is a woodworkers dream. To me its almost like mahogany. Ive seen it sold 6-8" bandsawn dimensioned with bark included so nothing was wasted.
If you are able to get it and can take it, in log form preferably, there would surely be a buyer.
But your question was..??
Everyone here will say go ahead and burn it. This isnt a furniture making forum.
This thread reminds me that I need to find a local sawmill and someone with a kiln for occasions like this.
I know 12" is not a superb specimen. But in my opinion walnut should never be burned.
 
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Look for a bowyer - walnut with nice grain can make really nice laminations and it even has nice memory for self bows. Not sure there is a lot of money in but I know many bowyers like to make their own laminations.
 
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I cut a lot of 12" diameter walnut. Depending on the tree you might only have six inches diameter of nice dark heartwood near the stump. You might have more but it really depends on the tree. Most of the walnut I cut for firewood are craggy leaners at the edge of the tree line so I'm not thinking veneer quality with these. That size tree probably isn't going to yield much furniture but it does smell like a fine cigar after it seasons for about a year. ;)
 
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Here in town some years back a teacher I knew was given a Black Walnut. It was a large tree, about 150 years old. He does a lot of furniture making so he had his sawyer come out to work on the trunk. He came in the shop and was telling me this story, his sawyer called him and said you've got to get over here right away, right now. So he drove across town to the sawyer and ask what's up. The guy took a bucket of water and threw it down the length of the trunk he had just cut. He tells me the grain in this thing lit up like fire. His sawyer turned to him and said, you can't cut this, you have to sell this, this is unbelievable. So, he had a large stock piece cut out of it, if I remember it was 8"x10" and 18' long. He listed it online and within 3 days a piano company out of Chicago came and picked it up. They paid $10,000. Some guys get all the luck. For as beautiful as Black Walnut is and as firewood how light it dries out, personally I hate to see it go to firewood too.
 
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andybaker said:
Here in town some years back a teacher I knew was given a Black Walnut. It was a large tree, about 150 years old. He does a lot of furniture making so he had his sawyer come out to work on the trunk. He came in the shop and was telling me this story, his sawyer called him and said you've got to get over here right away, right now. So he drove across town to the sawyer and ask what's up. The guy took a bucket of water and threw it down the length of the trunk he had just cut. He tells me the grain in this thing lit up like fire. His sawyer turned to him and said, you can't cut this, you have to sell this, this is unbelievable. So, he had a large stock piece cut out of it, if I remember it was 8"x10" and 18' long. He listed it online and within 3 days a piano company out of Chicago came and picked it up. They paid $10,000. Some guys get all the luck. For as beautiful as Black Walnut is and as firewood how light it dries out, personally I hate to see it go to firewood too.
Click to expand...

And therein lies the problem Andy. Folks hear this or read this and think that any old walnut will make them rich. Sad, but it won't.

I remember many years back when we took a load of logs to a mill. We had all hard maple and the guy in front of us had walnut. We got more than double the price for our maple than he did with his walnut. One log alone of our maple brought $500. Sure was wishing the whole load would have went that way. We're talking about 50 years ago so imagine what those dollars would be in today's money.
 
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Almost any walnut will make beautiful flooring if you want to put the time in to it.
 
I love walnut for woodworking. It behaves nicely when cutting with a circular blade. I've made many shaker end tables, and a sofa table from walnut. It's probably my favorite wood for furniture.
 
If you are thinking of walnut for flooring, consider the sunlight exposure. One downside of walnut for interior work is that it bleaches out over time. We made a custom yacht with a maple and walnut interior in 1990. You would hardly know that it is walnut in some areas 23 year later. I don't have the original pics digitized, but the difference is major. Here is the current shot. Note the difference between the table and the louvered doors.

Interior_web.jpg
 
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MJFlores said:
I love walnut for woodworking. It behaves nicely when cutting with a circular blade. I've made many shaker end tables, and a sofa table from walnut. It's probably my favorite wood for furniture.
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Of the hardwoods that I've made furniture out of it's also the easiest to work with handtools like planes, chisels, etc. It takes finish beautifully.

HackBerry said:
Depending on the tree you might only have six inches diameter of nice dark heartwood near the stump
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Agree - there will probably not be much useful heartwood there aside from some smaller specialty uses like turnings, gunstocks, pens, toothpicks, etc.


begreen said:
One downside of walnut for interior work is that it bleaches out over time.
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I'm suprised to hear this - Do you remember what type of finish was on that walnut, BG? It doesn't even seem like there would have been much sunlight exposure in that room.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
And therein lies the problem Andy. Folks hear this or read this and think that any old walnut will make them rich. Sad, but it won't. I remember many years back when we took a load of logs to a mill. We had all hard maple and the guy in front of us had walnut. We got more than double the price for our maple than he did with his walnut. One log alone of our maple brought $500. Sure was wishing the whole load would have went that way. We're talking about 50 years ago so imagine what those dollars would be in today's money.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I never really gave it any thought about the value of a lumber tree other than this one the teacher had dealt with. I figured he was lucky and knowing his connections I figured that helped him a lot in moving that piece. For as much as he got for it though I had no idea how lucky. I have given away pieces I've cut when someone is there that uses them to turn like Apple, specially the knots. If I cut down a tree that someone wanted for lumber I would give it to them. I know they would have quite an investment and a lot of work just getting it cut and dried and as for firewood, you can always move on to the next tree that comes along and they always do.
 
What I've discovered over the past 30+ years is Black Walnut gets lighter when exposed to strong sunlight,Black Cherry darkens fairly rapidly.Mulberry & Osage Orange/Hedge will start out that brilliant yellow or yellow-green but will start to turn reddish to golden brown in just a few hours or days,finally a chocolate brown after several years.No varnish,lacquer or clear Danish oil with prevent that either unfortunately.
 
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