The Walnut tree

[Paul Chapman]

I used to have two Walnut trees in my garden but, unfortunately, one of them died earlier this year. On Monday I had it taken down by a local tree surgeon and this is what it amounted to

Quite a few branches and lots of sapwood but also some useful-looking larger pieces with some reasonable heartwood.

I had a word with Paul (Chisel) who is into converting wood mainly for wood turning, Rob (Woodbloke) and Pete (Newt) who's advice I always respect, and Richard Jones who gave me some good advice about the useability of various parts of a tree. Following that, Paul (Chisel) came around today and we started converting the timber with a view to, hopefully, using it one day to make something nice.

Here's Paul getting stuck in with his chainsaw

Thirsty work

Some nice-looking stuff

It's very heavy lifting it into the trailer

The next stage is to pop down to Paul's place and start putting it through the bandsaw.

I'll let you know how we get on......

Cheers :ho2

Paul

 

[wizer]

wow! Something I never thought of when looking for a new house:

1. Workshop Space.
2. Usable Trees.

:lol:

Look forward to seeing them in plank form. How and How long are you going to dry them for?

 

[Paul Chapman]

Hi Wizer,

Never done anything like this before so it's all a bit of an experiment. I'll follow the usual advice about one year per inch for air drying and then bring it in somewhere warmer to lower the MC further - although I'm letting Chisel have some for turning, so he might do some of that green.

Sort of suck-it-and-see

Cheers :ho2

Paul

 

[woodbloke]

Paul - looks like there's some nice stuff inside that log. Sizes will be on the small size but I reckon with care in selection and drying of the timber there's a half decent project or four in there. I'd put it in stick outside somewhere (under cover) with a good circulation of air for a year or two and then move it into your unheated 'shop for a bit longer - Rob :ho2

 

[Paul Chapman]

Yes, that sounds about right, Rob. We didn't manage to get it all cut up today, so there's more to do, but it's looking promising Chisel worked really hard but I kept him going with pork pies :lol:

Cheers :ho2

Paul

 

[MikeG.]

Damn you greedy people with spinny things!!!!! You should be taking just the twigs and the nuts and be grateful, and leaving the proper wood for planking for furniture!! :wink:

English walnut is worth a fortune! You lucky people.......

Mike

(I hope the irony and jealousy comes across as it was meant to...)

 

[paulm]

I only do so many logs to the pork pie before I need refuelling :lol:

It's an interesting dilemma with the tree. Not really large enough and enough useable clean heartwood to make it worthwhile hiring a portable saw mill and having it milled through and through on site, but the pieces were too large and waaaay to heavy to handle safely even for a couple of fit young guys like us :lol:

So the pragmatic solution was to compromise on length of the pieces and reduce it to a size where we have a figthing chance of getting it through the bandsaw which can manage 10" to 12" under the guides, assuming we can lift it on there in the first place !!! :shock:

Ian at Dragon Saws managed to send some new heavy duty ripping blades for the bandsaw before he shut for Xmas, and the 1" 1.3tpi ripping blade is mounted and ready for action. It's a bit of a beast and will be interesting to see how it and the machine copy with some more heavy duty action, though I have used in this way before and quite successfully.

The plan (tentative !) is to cut along the length of the logs at 90 degrees to the long cut face using the chainsaw again, to remove some of the sapwood on both sides, create a flat surface and reduce the height to safely fit the bandsaw, then cut through and through for some decent width planks of varying thickness and around 3' in length.

Bit of a compromise, but we're having to live with the equipment available, and I think there will be plenty of decent material for smaller projects, boxes, panels, and of course maybe the odd bowl and other spinny type thing :wink:

Hopefully we'll be able to do justice to the timber, the heartwood looks beautiful close up, and not end up with a couple of knackered backs in the process :lol:

Cheers, Paul

 

[Digit]

(I hope the irony and jealousy comes across as it was meant to...)

Oh yes Mike, we got it! :lol:

Roy.

 

[Nick Gibbs]

That looks like gorgeous walnut. My favourite wood. Anything made for timber you've felled and processed yourself takes on a different meaning, I think. I'd love to see what you make of it.

Cheers

Nick

 

[wills-mill]

Lovely stuff.....

If you're struggling to get it on the bandsaw table and want to have a play over the holidays with a mobile mill you're welcome to bring it down to me, I'm about 20 mins from Dorking.

Walnut is always a treat 8)

 

[Mattty]

MMMM that looks like it will be very nice. As someone already said, projects made from timber harvested yourself are even more rewarding. :mrgreen:

 

[woodbloke]

(I hope the irony and jealousy comes across as it was meant to...)

Noted :lol:

Fwiw, I once bought a complete butt of English Walnut (2.5m x 600 x 60mm) and transported each board one at a time back to college in a Hillman Imp (the rear window lifted so I could put the front on the dash and have the back end sticking out of the window). The butt cost me the princely sum of £75...but it was in 1977. Happy days - Rob :ho2

 

[mahking51]

I only do so many logs to the pork pie before I need refuelling

Good job it wasn't me.... :lol: :lol:
From the first pic of Chisel I thought it was interesting where his ears grow, assuming they are under the ear defenders!
Lovely wood Paul, I had a look a a huge tree near me that just fell down but it was as rotten as could be and could not see any mileage in it.
Cheers,
Martin

 

[OPJ]

Great work, guys! English walnut is hard to come by in many parts of the country. I've now seen what the English stuff can look like at college and all I can say is that the American stuff doesn't compare! :wink:

Did you not take any photo's of the resawing??? If you're after "inch" boards, how thick did you actually cut them? 30mm?

Getting rid of the sapwood sounds like a great idea as it leaves those nasty little insects with a lot less to feed on! :wink:

 

[woodbloke]

Great work, guys! English walnut is hard to come by in many parts of the country. I've now seen what the English stuff can look like at college and all I can say is that the American stuff doesn't compare! :wink:

Have a look at Barnsley furniture to really see what can be done with English Walnut - Rob

 

[paulm]

Had a busy old morning this morning, Paul arrived mid-morning and we unloaded the trailer, some pieces into the shed/woodstore and some into the workshop, hadn't got any lighter overnight unfortunately :lol:

We successfully planked one of the half logs on the bandsaw, ran it through to take most of the sapwood off both sides to reduce the overall height and make it fit the 12" saw capacity, then took off the top plank of sapwood off the top, cutting the heartwood into two 60mm planks about 900mm long.

Took a long time as the saw cuts slowly at that depth, and a lot of waste wood for suprisingly little end product, but the figuring was fantastic and I think Paul was well chuffed !

It's gone back in the boot of his car to dry off some more at his home, and I reckon will cut down further later into some beautiful figured panels for a small cabinet or similar.

By the time we had done that and emptied the trailer and had some lunch it was time for Paul to head back.

I'll try a couple more pieces (the lighter ones!) myself in the workshop, probably tomorrow now, and see how I get on, the heavier ones are probably a two man job to do safely so Paul will be round again soon sometime probably after Xmas and see what more we can get done.

Long slow job and hard work, but the results are stunning, albeit with a high sapwood to heart ratio, but that should be fine in smaller work pieces hopefully.

Think Paul has another photo or two to post later when he gets back.

Cheers, Paul

 

[Paul Chapman]

Well, I've just arrived back home. Here's a picture of what we found when we cut the log \/

I think I like this log conversion lark

Let's hope the drying goes well........

Thanks for all your help, Paul - and be careful lifting those logs :wink:

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[paulm]

Fantastic figuring Paul, looks terrific

Cheers, Paul

 

[OPJ]

Even with around 40% sapwood, the figuring does indeed look stunning! You could certainly get some nice book-matched panels or similar in a year's time. :wink:

Will you be sealing the ends to try and prevent them from splitting as the wood dries?

 

[Paul Chapman]

Will you be sealing the ends to try and prevent them from splitting as the wood dries?

Hi OPJ,

Yes, the ends are sealed, the panels are 'in stick' and my fingers are crossed

Cheers :ho2

Paul