My Walnut wood

[PeterGee]

Hello all,

My first official post.

In early 2023 I decided to embark on a long term project that involved cutting down the mature Walnut tree in my back garden in Hampshire, keeping all the wood, drying it out in my garage, and then using it for local woodworkers to make furniture for me. It has been drying out for about 18 months, and the trunk was sawn into basic 2" x 80" planks by a man with a Chainsawmill in Summer 2023 (which are now ready to use). The trunk planks will go into making a large coffee table and also a large Cabinet. The rest of the wood (and there are a lot of large logs) will probably go into a large movable kitchen island, and smaller pieces of furniture such as dressing tables.

For now, I myself have decided to explore the quality of the Crotch pattern on the smaller pieces, using my Bandsaw to slice them. The first pictures are below, and more will follow... What do you think? Enjoy!

 

[Chris152]

Lovely idea.

 

[Yojevol]

Hi Peter and welcome to the forum. From your photos it looks as though you've got some nice walnut. Judging from timings I would be a bit sceptical about its readyness for use. The basic formula for air drying is 1year per inch of thickness, but this is based on it being stored in the open with good air flow between the slabs. This process will get the moisture content down to about 14%. However that's not the end of the process. Most woods will dry out to about 8% in normal CH houses, so its best to try and get down to somewhere near to that before working the timber. This can be done by bringing the slaps indoors from the garage for a few months. Commercial timber suppliers will sell kiln dried hardwoods at about 8% MC.
If you're anxious to get going, you could go ahead with a simple slab coffee table design where it won't matter too much if it does distort after completion. As for the cabinet I think you need to be a bit more cautious. I would recommend finding your maker and get him involved asap. He could well have a moisture meter and will advise you when it's ready to use.
Brian

 

[PeterGee]

Thanks Brian,
I do have a moisture meter that I use for judging how dry my firewood is, and I get a reading for the planked boards of 15.5%, so there is indeed some drying left to do here. I have a conservatory with enough space to put it in, but it does get exceedingly hot there in the summer, so I might leave it in the garage (which is south-facing and also gets warm in the summer). I can wait until the end of this coming summer before I send it off to be made into a slab coffee table, which is exactly what I was thinking about. Some more pictures, showing some of the Walnut wood:

 

[Cabinetman]

Thanks Brian,
I do have a moisture meter that I use for judging how dry my firewood is, and I get a reading for the planked boards of 15.5%, so there is indeed some drying left to do here. I have a conservatory with enough space to put it in, but it does get exceedingly hot there in the summer, so I might leave it in the garage (which is south-facing and also gets warm in the summer). I can wait until the end of this coming summer before I send it off to be made into a slab coffee table, which is exactly what I was thinking about. Some more pictures, showing some of the Walnut wood:

View attachment 196926View attachment 196928View attachment 196929

The problem is Peter, that if you were to cut that board in half and check the centre it would still be quite wet, a lot of the moisture is wicked along the grain to the ends to evaporate, sorry. As they are 2” planks I hope you have a good bandsaw for resawing.
Welcome btw.

 

[Eshmiel]

As other have noted, drying the cuttings from a large tree is no simple matter. There are many pitfalls (that woulda been a pun if it had been sawn in the traditional manner rather than with a bandsaw).

Two inch thick planks take ages to dry. If you try to dry them quickly you're likely to induce inner tensions with actual and potential (when cut) cracks. Personally I feel that 3 years air drying would be necessary for something like that walnut, followed by another slow conditioning to get it from 15% to 11% moisture content. (Eight percent is really too dry - most modern houses that aren't black-mould-growing rip-off-rentier hovels have a 10-11% atmosphere. Drier can induce respiratory issues).

Have you painted the ends of those logs with summick to stop the end grain evaporating moisture at a rapid rate? Logs, even with the ends painted, will crack radially as they dry. It might be best to split them in half. You'll probably have to do that anyway to get rid of the pith, which is unusable.

If you want to use the wood of those logs dry then you probably need to cut them up to dry the parts to avoid those radial cracks. You should also be aware that branches and other non-trunk parts can have a lot of tensions in them (they're known as "reaction wood") which will make it impossible to get any straight parts (they twist, cup and warp when cut and releasing their tensions). Even small parts will warp. I once tried to make little boxes out of such stuff but every one went wonky in numerous ways.

 

[PeterGee]

As other have noted, drying the cuttings from a large tree is no simple matter. There are many pitfalls (that woulda been a pun if it had been sawn in the traditional manner rather than with a bandsaw).

Two inch thick planks take ages to dry. If you try to dry them quickly you're likely to induce inner tensions with actual and potential (when cut) cracks. Personally I feel that 3 years air drying would be necessary for something like that walnut, followed by another slow conditioning to get it from 15% to 11% moisture content. (Eight percent is really too dry - most modern houses that aren't black-mould-growing rip-off-rentier hovels have a 10-11% atmosphere. Drier can induce respiratory issues).

Have you painted the ends of those logs with summick to stop the end grain evaporating moisture at a rapid rate? Logs, even with the ends painted, will crack radially as they dry. It might be best to split them in half. You'll probably have to do that anyway to get rid of the pith, which is unusable.

If you want to use the wood of those logs dry then you probably need to cut them up to dry the parts to avoid those radial cracks. You should also be aware that branches and other non-trunk parts can have a lot of tensions in them (they're known as "reaction wood") which will make it impossible to get any straight parts (they twist, cup and warp when cut and releasing their tensions). Even small parts will warp. I once tried to make little boxes out of such stuff but every one went wonky in numerous ways.

I did paint the ends of the largest pieces with wax paint I bought from Amazon within a month of the tree being felled I could do a bit more painting though, and I need to strip the bark off too to accelerate the drying and avoid woodworm.

I will saw the logs that have forks/crotch sections in them as I will be using the crotches separately for veneer, this should speed up the drying process somewhat for a few of the logs. When I have made a small object from the lathe I am going to be buying, I will post it here.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Those crotch pieces would make amazing centre-piece bowls for a table i wonder of there are any woodturners near you?