Walnut Tree, is the timber worth saving

[Random Orbital Bob]

I wasn't hinting Paul honest

Ive got a bit of ash for you too from the house build next door to me (clearing some trees). I appreciate its not quite in the same league as walnut mind That does look good enough to eat in the photos.

 

[paulm]

That does look good enough to eat in the photos.

Thought it was only me that thought odd things like that Rob :lol:

Cheers, Paul

 

[Tony Spear]

Just look at what you can do with small pieces of Walnut!

http://hawthornecrafts.com/

 

[marku]

Hi

I managed to get time to move a few of the bits of timber that I managed to save from the woodturner (Paul) down from the yard and seal the ends with some PVA glue, these bits look quite good!

Paul was joking about the firewood, there is a bit of Walnut on the firewood pile, but this tree did fall down and some of it is split or damaged, also some of the smaller limbs have no dark wood in them at all. Paul seems very sure that Walnut is only suitable for woodturning, not so sure myself.

I am still looking forward to getting the 2 large bits planked up but because of the recent storm the guys around us are quite busy at the moment but the latest date is the end of next week, although there is a small pocket of rot in them I am hoping there will also be some good wood.

Just need to find a very large (old, cheap) 3 phase bandsaw now to convert this into useful sizes.

Thanks to Paul for his help cutting some of this up.

Mark

 

[paulm]

Those bits do look especially good Mark, worthy of some nice furniture, boxes, guitar sets or similar.

See, I'm not obsessed with round stuff !

Having said that though I could do some nice nested salad bowl sets from them :-k :lol:

Seriously good bits of timber. Fingers crossed you get some more good stuff from the larger trunks.

Cheers, Paul,

 

[paulm]

Met up with Mark again this morning to take the three larger trunks for milling.

Was interesting to see the big mill in operation, not sure you can tell from the pictures but the blades were probably about 4" wide and maybe about 9 foot long. Unfortunately they lost some teeth on one blade on a hidden nail, and damaged some more teeth on the replacement blade on a different bit of metal on the next trunk :shock: Not good as the blades look expensive !

Thankfully they had some decent kit to do most of the heavy lifting, and the mill has some useful hydraulics on it for positioning the logs too.

As always with this kind of stuff most of the time went on moving the timber around and planning how best to attack it, the actuall cutting took only seconds for each pass through even the longer logs which must have been around 8 to 10'. The mill cut effortlessly, very impressive.

Some large pockets of rot in some of the pieces but still a lot of decent timber, and a fun morning out.

Mark's going to unload and stack it to dry tomorrow when he has a bit more time.























Still some smaller cross section logs on the second trailer, but limited heartwood in them, probably worth saving two or three but mostly firewood otherwise, but a good haul of usable timber from the tree overall

Cheers, Paul

 

[marku]

Hi

As posted by Paul, we went and got some of the larger bits of wood milled up, would of been very cheap if it wasn't for the nails in the wood that the blade hit.

Thanks to Paul for his help and advice.

Some quite good bits came out and some very rotten bits but enough good bits to make it worth the effort.

I got time to stack it up today with sticks separating the boards, now all that remains is to seal the ends and wait for it to dry!

Maybe in a few years it may be possible to post some pics of something that's been made from this wood.

The best bit about this experience is that it has got me back in the shed and I have been finishing of a box I started making a year ago.

Pics of the wood are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/108358094@N07/

Mark

 

[nathandavies]

I see table legs

 

[marku]

I'm not sure if I should post on this thread or start a new one,

I have been waiting for the Walnut to dry out a bit before doing anything with it, I ended up with an easy day at work today and decided to cut a small piece up that has been under my desk since the tree came down.

About ten years ago I made a knife and cut out a blank for another one but never got any further with it, I thought it would be nice to use a bit of the walnut to make the handle. I don't have time for much of a project at the moment so this seemed an easy one.

Having cut the bit up under my desk I had to go and have a look at the rest of the wood (not having looked at it for 18 months) which has been drying out in the yard under some plywood sheets, it all seems to be drying out nicely. Although it had become buried in a lot of rubbish

Unfortunately I am moving my business and I might have to get rid of a load of the wood which is a shame.

 

[Droogs]

looks like its coming along nicely

 

[custard]

English Walnut can break your heart. Sappy, wormy, and full of checks; but it's such a beautiful timber when it works out. I've lost count of the times I've set to on a cutting list with what felt like an extravagant number of sawn Walnut boards, only to be really struggling at the end to get enough usable wood out to finish the project.

Still, starting with an entire tree and finishing with a pair of knife scales must be a record!

 

[marku]

Droogs, Thanks I think its drying out well!

Custard, I know what you mean two knife scales isn't a great achievement from an entire tree. You will be pleased to know that I am aiming to get at least one pen from the timber as well !!!!.

Seriously though I think you are right about the wastage, the guys at the sawmill said the same thing.

Luckily I am fairly realistic about the amount of wood that will come from the Walnut, I don't really have time to make big pieces like tables etc, its just satisfying to take the tree and convert it into something other than fire wood.

Hopefully it will give me enough timber to make a couple of boxes. The rest I think will have to go to a new home as the new business units I have taken on don't lend themselves to pallets of wood as well as our old premises did.

Watch this space for a very small pen!

Mark

 

[MusicMan]

If you have any parts where a burr has formed on the trunk, this is also a prized part for woodturners.

 

[beganasatree]

Hi Mark,
Some folk have all the luck.ENJOY WHAT YOU HAVE.

Peter

 

[marku]

Unfortunately I don't think there are any burrs, I suspect Paul who helped cut the tree up would of pointed them out as he is a turner.

All joking aside there is a fair amount of wood to use up.

Mark

 

[custard]

Incidentally, with Walnut you can get away with using some of the darker sap (provided it's fairly solid and not punky) by staining it with a water soluble aniline dye, just pick a Walnut shade, raise the grain first with some hot water, sand at 220 grit, then apply the dye. It's really not difficult.

Even though we call it sap I don't think it is, I suspect Walnut is like Laburnum in that there's sap, pale heartwood, and right at the centre dark heartwood. A lot of commercially produced Walnut is steamed which has the effect of evening up the colour across the darker and paler wood, unfortunately it also tends to muddy the grain, so personally I prefer unsteamed Walnut and I'll stretch it just that bit further with dye. It's saved my bacon on many occasions as making even relatively high priced furniture is often uneconomic with Walnut as the wastage can rival Yew or Olivewood at 70 or 80% unless you use a few tricks to help you out.

Good luck!

 

[Benchwayze]

I have used walnut 'bough-wood' for veneering small boxes. (Veneer sawn on my own bandsaw, to about 1/8" thickness.) Used like this it's quite stable, and whilst not heavily figured, it is still beautiful to look at. Nice gift you had there!


John

 

[marku]

I think you are right about the sap and pale heart wood, a lot of the pale wood seems like really good wood to me. I am going to try and get the wood out in the near future and unstack it to have a proper look at what's there.

It certainly makes my small bandsaw struggle, but making veneers from it might be a good idea and an excuse to look for a better bandsaw.

Mark

 

[custard]

Hello Mark, PM sent, check your inbox.

 

[paulm]

Unfortunately I'm workshopless at the moment Mark, due to building work and a likely house move next year, otherwise I would be over like a shot with the trailer !

There weren't any burrs as far as I recall but lots of other nice timber

Cheers, Paul