Cutting up Black Walnut

[Simonkenton]

This big tree went down in a storm in a hay field, one mile from my house.

I got on to it today with the Stihl 039. Thirty three year old saw. 20 inch bar.

The drums were 25 inch diameter. No rot. Most of the drums I could split with a few strokes of the Fiskars.
This one I had to use the ten pound hammer and the Wood Grenade.

The Stihl was roaring today.

Six drums was just about a truck load. Plus, I had to carry 2 chain saws, a maul, a cant hook, a ten pound hammer and gas and oil jugs, with all that gear piled on the truck was just about full.

 

[Bad LP]

Damn. That looked too good to burn. I would have had some of it milled for lumber then split what was not suitable.

 

[SpaceBus]

It breaks my heart to see that beautiful walnut going into a stove.

 

[Simonkenton]

When I built my log cabin, I cut the Summerbeam from black walnut. Cut the tree down on my property and sawed it flat with that Stihl.
This beam is 24 feet long, 8 inches thick, and 18 inches high. Spent about 9 hours sanding it down, and that fine powdered sanding sawdust is toxic!

I am sitting right beneath it right now, it sure is beautiful.

I don't need any black walnut lumber just now so this one is going into the wood stove. I burn lots of black walnut. Up here it is a pest, I own 48 acres, and I own probably 250 black walnut trees. I had to whack several of them because they were killing my garden. Black walnut trees, and their roots, put out freaky toxins that will just kill a vegetable garden. Whacked another one, because the nuts kept falling on my truck and denting the hood.

If I did need lumber, the sawmill would not take this tree. As you can see it was growing on the edge of the field. Tree is 70 years old.
Over the years a fence was installed around the field and the fence is nailed to the bottom of this tree. The sawmill will not touch a tree when they know there are nails in it. In fact I am going back tomorrow for more of the trunk, but, I am not going within 7 feet of the roots, don't want to hit a nail with my saw.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

View attachment 261727

When I built my log cabin, I cut the Summerbeam from black walnut. Cut the tree down on my property and sawed it flat with that Stihl.
This beam is 24 feet long, 8 inches thick, and 18 inches high. Spent about 9 hours sanding it down, and that fine powdered sanding sawdust is toxic!

Very informative comment. Thank you.
I am sitting right beneath it right now, it sure is beautiful.

I don't need any black walnut lumber just now so this one is going into the wood stove. I burn lots of black walnut. Up here it is a pest, I own 48 acres, and I own probably 250 black walnut trees. I had to whack several of them because they were killing my garden. Black walnut trees, and their roots, put out freaky toxins that will just kill a vegetable garden. Whacked another one, because the nuts kept falling on my truck and denting the hood.

If I did need lumber, the sawmill would not take this tree. As you can see it was growing on the edge of the field. Tree is 70 years old.
Over the years a fence was installed around the field and the fence is nailed to the bottom of this tree. The sawmill will not touch a tree when they know there are nails in it. In fact I am going back tomorrow for more of the trunk, but, I am not going within 7 feet of the roots, don't want to hit a nail with my saw.

 

[Bad LP]

View attachment 261727

When I built my log cabin, I cut the Summerbeam from black walnut. Cut the tree down on my property and sawed it flat with that Stihl.
This beam is 24 feet long, 8 inches thick, and 18 inches high. Spent about 9 hours sanding it down, and that fine powdered sanding sawdust is toxic!

I am sitting right beneath it right now, it sure is beautiful.

I don't need any black walnut lumber just now so this one is going into the wood stove. I burn lots of black walnut. Up here it is a pest, I own 48 acres, and I own probably 250 black walnut trees. I had to whack several of them because they were killing my garden. Black walnut trees, and their roots, put out freaky toxins that will just kill a vegetable garden. Whacked another one, because the nuts kept falling on my truck and denting the hood.

If I did need lumber, the sawmill would not take this tree. As you can see it was growing on the edge of the field. Tree is 70 years old.
Over the years a fence was installed around the field and the fence is nailed to the bottom of this tree. The sawmill will not touch a tree when they know there are nails in it. In fact I am going back tomorrow for more of the trunk, but, I am not going within 7 feet of the roots, don't want to hit a nail with my saw.

Some of us are not that lucky.

 

[Simonkenton]

That work yesterday got good to me. I went out this morning and got another truck load. I have gotten 25 percent of this tree.
I am going to have to leave the rest for someone else. No more room to stack on my ladder "extra firewood pile" and I am running out of ladders.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I have burned walnut before. Wasn't real keen on it. Burned nice, but didn't put out much heat.

 

[Simonkenton]

BTU Values of Wood Species

Wood species type BTU values of a cord burning wood in a wood stove

www.wood-heating-solutions.com

20.2 million BTU per cord. That is pretty good. I like to burn it and I am also burning white oak and locust. Those two woods are really great but black walnut is pretty good.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I know the btu content, but the stuff I burned seemed more like 8-10 Mbtu. It was dry but didn't heat the house.

 

[Simonkenton]

I have burned lots and lots of it and I am pretty well pleased with the performance. I will say that black walnut is the lowest performing wood I will burn.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

At least we rank it the same, lol. I love oak, ash, and locust. This year we have mostly maple.

 

[Simonkenton]

I have been burning oak and locust for decades. I didn't even know what ash was. Except, when I was a kid in Little League in Atlanta, on the baseball bats it said "LOUISVILLE SLUGGER . NORTHERN WHITE ASH."
I knew it was a tree that grew up north and they made baseball bats with it.

Well, several years ago, I read on this forum about guys up in Yankeeland having all their ash trees die due to the emerald ash borer.
I have 48 acres of land but I figured, that was up in Yankeeland.
But, last October my brother's girlfriend had a tree down in her yard. Big nice looking tree but was about half dead and she had hired a tree company to inspect it. They told her it was an ash tree killed by the emerald ash borer. They whacked the tree for her and let it lay.
So, I knew that these trees grew here in the NC mountains. Now, I couldn't get that tree it was up a hillside in her back yard and we would have had to trample through the garden to get the wood out. Not possible.

But I took close up pics of those leaves. And I realized that I had a dozen dead ash trees right here near my house! What a surprise.
So I have put two Nissan truck loads of ash into the wood pile this year. I will start burning it next year because, guess what? Standing dead ash is about 26 percent moisture, nearly dry while standing. I have seen on the charts that it is a notch better than black walnut. Splits pretty easy. I am counting on good results with the ash.

The bad news, I only have a few ash trees left, that I can get to that are still alive, so I will whack them next year and then it will be Auf Wiedersehen for the ash trees.
Same thing happened to the locust 20 years ago, they are all dead and gone now.