Walnut Tree, is the timber worth saving

[jimmy_s]

Hello everyone - new to the forum

It would be a shame to leave the stump - generally the most highly figured wood is in the rootball area - its normally the bit the guys who make gun stocks etc want - but it would take a bit of work to get it to a usable state - ie cleaning all the stones and crap out of it and chainsawing off all the roots etc.

 

[Sailormantom]

Hi

It might be worth trying http://www.hampshirewoodsuppliers.co.uk/about_us.html. Paul runs a very small timber yard out near Andover and because he is small might be more likely to consider dealing with a single tree. I have no commercial tie up with him other than being a satisfied customer.

Cheers, tom

 

[marku]

Hi

I have found a company that are quite happy to plank up the large bits as long as I take it to them which I am hoping to do early next week.

I also took the chainsaw to one of the odd bits today to see what it looked like.

There are some photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/108358094@ ... 803319674/

I can't upload them here for some reason the file extension is not allowed, any ideas?

One decent sized bit and I put a small offcut over the planer to see what it is like.

Paul came over today to have a look so hopefully will be able to tie up with him and use his Alaskan mill to convert some bits for woodturning as well.

Mark

 

[paulm]

Nice work Mark

Some good looking stuff there, there'll be nothing left to do at this rate !!!

Cheers, Paul

 

[nicguthrie]

Wow... If this is a scam to get us all hyped at the chance to buy some gorgeous wood from you, it's working!

Don't forget, if you're cutting it up to dry, you'll need to seal the ends with paraffin wax (though a buddy of mine swears PVA glue works) to stop it splitting and spoiling for turning.

Some of that looks absolutely amazing. Does anyone know if the paler sap wood has similar, or at least decent enough, qualities to be stored and turned as a two tone piece?

Nic.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

 

[Nick Gibbs]

I'd avoid chainsaw mills unless you have no other option - the width of cut, (kerf), means an awful lot of material is wasted - not something you want to do with good walnut. If you can get it to a saw mill they should be able to band saw it for you.

I don't totally agree on this. Chainsaw mills are wasteful, however your options are limited. For a relatively big butt like this a chainsaw will be ideal to 'box the heart'. I did exactly this for a friend with my large Husqvarna and a Granberg Alaskan mill. This kept the heartwood as long as possible, and he could then resaw it on his bandsaw. You might be able to find a local owner of an Alaskan chainsaw mill by contacting Rob Dyer at www.alaskanmill.co.uk. The mills are relatively inexpensive if you have a good/large chainsaw already.

The other option is to get a mobile miller to do the job. We have a list of mobile mill operators on our Living Woods website (www.living-woods.com/directory-mobile-sawmills). They often have chainsaw mills to do preparatory work, and may be able to help you out. Good luck. The more British timber we use the better.

 

[Gerard Scanlan]

Well I am not sure if I agree with the people who claim only the dark heartwood is worth keeping.
Check out the cupboard a friend of mine has made using the full width of a walnut log. It really is magic.

http://www.atelier4d.nl/collectie_notenkast.html

Brilliant topic. Tree blows over ... woodworkers around the world get excited. It is a bit like roadkill to a hunter.

 

[heatherw]

I've got some bits of walnut and at first I was only using the heartwood, but then I noticed that the sapwood, which is a sort of light greyish colour has a beautiful ripple to it, a bit like a silver tabby cat. Definitely consider using some of the sapwood. However, it does tend to be softer and even more susceptible to insect damage ( woodworm like walnut even more than we do).

I've got my eye on a walnut tree that the neigbour is going to cut down in a weeks time. It's huge, but nearly dead, and I'm hoping there won't be any huge holes down the middle, there's some kind of beetle which has a massive maggot about 4 inches long which tends to attack wood here. I've even found one when bandsawing almond wood which is harder than oak. The neighbours want to use the walnut for firewood :roll: but I have permission to take some bits if it's any good.

 

[nicguthrie]

I've got my eye on a walnut tree that the neigbour is going to cut down in a weeks time. It's huge, but nearly dead, and I'm hoping there won't be any huge holes down the middle, there's some kind of beetle which has a massive maggot about 4 inches long which tends to attack wood here. I've even found one when bandsawing almond wood which is harder than oak. The neighbours want to use the walnut for firewood :roll: but I have permission to take some bits if it's any good.

Frustrates the living daylights out of me, this. Happens all the time up here too. A tonne of hardwood seasoned firewood from a local tree surgeon = £40. The price of about a single decent bowl blank from that tree they're going to burn, most likely "cos it's too much trouble to do anything else"

I have a relative that's a tree surgeon, and his groundsman (who is a turner/woodworker) was just about driven to tears recently, when they chopped an 6-8 foot girth, fully mature and perfect condition oak, (standing within 10 feet of an access road) into firewood for that reason. It would have taken a few calls and a some organising to make fifty times the cash and save the gorgeous wood for those of us that appreciate it.

You could always offer to swap the tree for firewood and make the money back to buy it for them by ebaying a few sealed but green blanks from it? You would save the expensive and beautiful wood, and make yourself quite a bit of cash at the same time... They may see sense if you explain just how expensive and rare the wood they're planning on burning is, they may as well be burning furniture they got for free.

Nic.

 

[marku]

Hi

Not a sales scam, I'm not that clever.

I think with all these things you have to take a view on it, in an ideal world you would save every scrap of wood but in the real world time and facilities come into play.

I am going to take the very large bits to the sawmill on monday, They are quoting about £140.00 to plank it up into 2" thick planks. There are only about 3 pieces worth doing this with maybe even 2, I wont know until I get there and they take a look.

Hopefully Paul will cut some of the other larger bits up with his Alaskan mill set up which will be interesting as I have always wondered how effective these are.

I have cut one piece up so far with the chainsaw freehand and sealed the ends with PVA glue, I am going to try a few of the smaller bits on the bandsaw.

Very interesting to hear about the pale wood I assumed it was only good for the woodburner so I will have to do some research.

Did pressure wash the stump today, this is probably the hardest bit to deal with as my chainsaw is a bit on the small side and although I know people with large saws I can't ask them to cut up a root ball because of chain damage etc. Any suggestions?

Mark

 

[Nick Gibbs]

Hopefully Paul will cut some of the other larger bits up with his Alaskan mill set up which will be interesting as I have always wondered how effective these are. Mark

Alaskan mills are amazing to get you going, but limited for repeat work as there is so much wastage. One day someone will develop a tiny horizontal bandsaw mill that can be used once the bulk of the processing has been done with a chainsaw.

Looks like you've got a burr or walnut root. This is well worth milling, perhaps thinner than 2in. We've got an amazing story in the next issue of BW about a guy who pulled a walnut root out of the ground, and had it milled into 5/8in slices. He's made a beautiful tambour cabinet with it. Normally this sort of stuff gets used for gunstocks, so it's unusual to see root walnut in furniture.

 

[adidat]

that clever canadian chap already has Nick!

click here for more info

but that is some seriously nice stuff you have there!

adidat

 

[marku]

Nick

The root could be lovely inside but difficult to tell not having seen one before I have nothing to compare it to, there does seem to be a fair bit of rot in it but this may be normal?

Getting it milled is definately the problem, no one wants to touch it with a bandsaw mill because of damaging the blade.

Maybe I will have to wait and make a bandsaw mill like the one above.

Mark

 

[No skills]

Good luck with getting this tree turned into some useable timber, hope all goes well. =D>

I look at the grain pattern and colour in that root and just want to make some kitchen door panels, strange eh?

 

[Nick Gibbs]

Good point about woodgear's bandmill. We should make one over here.

Rot is very normal in walnut. And all sort of other nasties your sawmill won't like, and your chainsaw will hate!!! I'll ask Charles Thomson, who milled the walnut root, how he got so much out of it. He has 18x18in squares of 15mm thick stuff that is absolutely exquisite. I guess you go very slowly and extract what you can, then wait for a great opportunity to use it. Charles showed me some burr elm he has that has suffered from a white fungus of some sort. He has six panels and can't decide what to do with it. We'll show it in the next issue, and perhaps someone can suggest something for him to make!!!

Cheers

Nick

 

[marku]

Thanks, that would be great if you could ask him, I did think about just taking a chainsaw to it and reducing it bit by bit, I suspect I would wreck it though.

Look forward to seeing the article in BW Mag.

Mark

 

[Nick Gibbs]

I suspect taking a chainsaw to it and reducing it bit by bit might actually be quite a good strategy. It's fairly likely to be full of stones. But every bit of English walnut should be saved and used in my opinion. It is a king of timbers.

 

[Gerard Scanlan]

Why not use a big bow saw to cut up the root stump? Finding a big one commercially can be a problem but they are easy to rig up for yourself from a timber frame and with a metre length of 1 inch wide bandsaw blade. It will take a while to cut through but it won't waste much wood and it won't damage anyone's saw.

 

[marku]

Gerald

Great idea. I hadn't thought of cutting it manually.

I like a challenge and I'm not sure how stupid this is but I have borrowed a saw and the best bit is the owner isn't worried about how I treat it.

I will sand it off and sharpen it up, fit two new handles and give it a go. Once the stump is in half it will be easier to deal with.

Mark

 

[Gerard Scanlan]

Power to you Mark.
Make sure you have a couple of narrow wedges and a hammer handy so that you can keep the saw blade free as you cut. Normally people say just let the saw do the work but I am afraid it might be an idea to get someone on the other end of that monster saw. I am very pleased that you are going to tackle this by hand. I was talking to a fellow wood worker a couple of weeks ago about felling your own timber with a handsaw. It is hard work but so much more satisfying than suiting and booting up to use power tools and it is not at though you have a whole forest to fell.

Keen to know how you get on.

Gerard