Reclaimed black walnut

[SimonStevensCanes]

I was offered a large sideboard from a colleague, he said it was “heavy” but no more details.

Expecting laminated MDF, I took a punt and made the journey to collect and to my surprise, I appear to have scored a lot of solid black walnut. Can anybody confirm?


The sideboard itself is in pretty decent nick, I’m half tempted to refinish it and flip it. I’m sure new it would have been in the £1k region, but I’d love some walnut to play with.

Broken down, I’d end up with 4 solid panels as above, a couple of smaller end panels with some holes, 2 doors, and 4 legs that appear to be constructed of 1x6 boards laminated together (they are beefy!).

I don’t have a project in mind for the timber, so it would be stored in the workshop and I’m concerned about warping on panels so thin. Is that something I should be worried about?

 

[Steliz]

Nice, it certainly looks like Walnut. The panels don't look thin (1" maybe?) so, as long as you store them in a dry place they should be fine.

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

Nice, it certainly looks like Walnut. The panels don't look thin (1" maybe?) so, as long as you store them in a dry place they should be fine.

hah yeah thin is a relative term I guess. I meant that if they did warp there’s not a lot of room for planing.

 

[Droogs]

leave the current finish on them while in storage and they should be OK (looks to be oil or wax based). Just clean off when you actually need to use them. Very nice find BTW

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

leave the current finish on them while in storage and they should be OK (looks to be oil or wax based). Just clean off when you actually need to use them.

Good tip, thanks!

Very nice find BTW

I nearly didn’t bother

 

[thetyreman]

you should think of a project you could use it on, maybe cut it into thinner boards and make some small boxes out of it? where the boards are laminated together is not very well done it's done in a very oak furniture land way where the lines are too obvious, if that was free you've got an amazing find there, walnut is one of the absolute best woods and it's extremely expensive to buy.

 

[J-G]

walnut is one of the absolute best woods and it's extremely expensive to buy.

Walnut - along with Maple - is my favourite wood to work with. I recently bought a 2.2m length of 38mm x 240mm for £72 -- the Maple I bought at the same time was £18 for a 1.5m length of 27 x 150.

I do make small to medium boxes often taking both down to 4mm thick.

 

[Droogs]

If doing boxes, you could saw down the joint line and then resaw each plank to get a wider rejoined book matched board albeit thinner

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

you should think of a project you could use it on, maybe cut it into thinner boards and make some small boxes out of it? where the boards are laminated together is not very well done it's done in a very oak furniture land way where the lines are too obvious, if that was free you've got an amazing find there, walnut is one of the absolute best woods and it's extremely expensive to buy.

To be fair, the piece I posted a picture of is an internal shelf.

I definitely get the impression that this was a bespoke build originally. The amount of wood used in the legs is seriously excessive, no way a manufacturer would be wasting that much wood. I am grateful for this

 

[AndyT]

Walnut's lovely stuff to work. It really doesn't need to be thick and chunky either, so from the big bits you've got you should be able to make something slender and elegant.

I was quite pleased with this little walnut table I made three years ago and wrote up in the Projects section on here.

 

[Jonzjob]

I was given an oak TV cabinet by a mate of mine several years back and I still have a small amount left. So far I have used it for small boxes a number of cotton reel racks and a load of crochet hooks. It's lovely wood but you black walnut is even better and if you are stuck with what to do with it then just wrap it up and I'll take it off your hands and I won't charge for doing so

If you are in to turning then your imagination is your limit!

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

If you are in to turning then your imagination is your limit!

Alas, it doesn’t particularly appeal. I’ll end up with a lathe I’m sure, but just for necessities I think.

I don’t tend to think of small projects, but I really should. I’m making a small sapelle jewellery box for my wife, but beyond that I don’t really have any ideas

 

[Bristol_Rob]

Nice score, I'd pop a metal detector over them before setting to work

 

[TDA171]

Nice score, I'd pop a metal detector over them before setting to work

I was offered a large sideboard from a colleague, he said it was “heavy” but no more details.

Expecting laminated MDF, I took a punt and made the journey to collect and to my surprise, I appear to have scored a lot of solid black walnut. Can anybody confirm?

View attachment 96855View attachment 96857View attachment 96858
The sideboard itself is in pretty decent nick, I’m half tempted to refinish it and flip it. I’m sure new it would have been in the £1k region, but I’d love some walnut to play with.

Broken down, I’d end up with 4 solid panels as above, a couple of smaller end panels with some holes, 2 doors, and 4 legs that appear to be constructed of 1x6 boards laminated together (they are beefy!).

I don’t have a project in mind for the timber, so it would be stored in the workshop and I’m concerned about warping on panels so thin. Is that something I should be worried about?

I would strongly suggest that you store ‘laid flat’ if at all possible. Even dry planked timber tends to take a ‘bow’ if stood not quite vertical for prolonged periods. Nice, and valuable acquisition though,...lucky you!

 

[Fireburst]

Very nice... probably my favorite wood to work with.

 

[Tanglefoot20]

Wow snetty.... I’d like to get my hands on some wood like that....would be nice to turn some of my ladies out of that....sadly I think the ash ....sycamore and hawthorn will have to suffice for now.
By the way.....thanks for the Like.