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I sold some black walnut trees to some timber guys for veneer and they were nice enough to leave the upper 1/2 to 3/4s of the trees laying all around my property and yard. I've been sectioning it up and splitting it for firewood, but there's a LOT of it and I was wondering if it's any good for turning...? I notice it's light on the outside and has a dark heart; I'm just curious about it's properties for making wooden things out of....

Thanks

Um....

Yes, it is highly sought after, fetches real money, is absolutely wonderful for turnery and flatwork.

Save as much as you can.

Okay, thanks. Yeah, I know it's valuable wood, I just didn't know what turnings would come out like, as I've no real experience with it. Any tips on curing it Kurt? Thanks again!

If you're not going to turn it immediately, seal the end grain with a wax emulsion like they sell at Woodcraft and keep an eye on it. If it starts to crack, throw some more sealant on. You might need to split it to keep the cracks under control.

Or, mill it into flat boards and stick it - stacked with spacers (sticks) between to separate the boards. Let it dry naturally for a year or so.

What Kurt said.

Save as much as you can. The bigger pieces will make nice pipe stands or humidors.







And the little stuff will make a nifty pipe tamper.

Those are great ideas, thanks! That being said, if anyone's near SW Michigan and wants some Black Walnut, I've got more than I can use!

Where in SW Michigan are you? I'm in the Kalamazoo area.

alan wrote:Where in SW Michigan are you? I'm in the Kalamazoo area.

I'm just south of Lawton; very near....

I have a lot of black walnut on my new property. I've cut down 1 tree so far and have another to go... I plan on setting aside quite a bit of it... it really is beautiful stuff.

Yeah, I'm discovering how nice it is as I section it up. The back of my property is mostly pine and fir, and the front section is a lot of maple (which I'll be sugaring this year hopefully) and black walnut with a smidgen of cherry and mulberry mixed in. I've got a couple oaks around and some apple and peach right in the yard.... flank that with a grape vineyard and some corn/bean fields and there you have it!

Now that I'm thinking of it, would it behoove me to leave the wood in longer sections and anchorseal the ends, or should I cut it up into smaller pieces? I've got one tree mostly sectioned, but there's four more to go.....

Thanks

I personally would leave the pieces larger and Anchorseal the ends - but it depends on what projects I have in mind. In truth, I'd probably have a mix of smaller and larger pieces.

The smaller pieces, however, will be more stable as they dry.

I just went out to see how much of it I had brainlessly cut into firewood only size pieces... I'll be honest- I cried a little.

You can also use plain old elmers wood glue to seal the ends while it cures. I used to do that all the time drying out bow staves. It really doesnt SEAL the ends it just slows down the passage of moisture out the ends as it tends to move too quickly there compared to the rest of the wood.

New to the forum just wanted to say I am planning a pipe with black walnut. Just wondering if anyone has any feed back on this.

ellijaypipemaker wrote:New to the forum just wanted to say I am planning a pipe with black walnut. Just wondering if anyone has any feed back on this.

Not sure if it's a good idea. I know the tree produces it's own natural herbicide in the root system which has caused a lot of concern about it's use. It's safe to eat out of as a dish, but I don't think I'd smoke anything out of it.....

The guys who cut down the trees left two big limbs lying on the edge of the yard; I noticed with interest that they were really knotty and diseased looking. Today I took the chainsaw to one and discovered some really pretty wood in the useable parts; I plan on somehow cutting it down to various sized 'blanks'. Should I let the chunks dry out (treated on the ends) and then pare them down, or would it be okay to cut them down to rough blank-size and use the paper-bag method or something...? Seems like they might cure quicker that way..... Thanks ye.

BeatusLiebowitz wrote:The guys who cut down the trees left two big limbs lying on the edge of the yard; I noticed with interest that they were really knotty and diseased looking. Today I took the chainsaw to one and discovered some really pretty wood in the useable parts; I plan on somehow cutting it down to various sized 'blanks'. Should I let the chunks dry out (treated on the ends) and then pare them down, or would it be okay to cut them down to rough blank-size and use the paper-bag method or something...? Seems like they might cure quicker that way..... Thanks ye.

When things "go wrong" inside a tree, and you don't end up with a bunch of rotten wood or gaps, the result is usually AWESOME.

I know a guy in Iowa who bought a 150 acre ranch, then had it "thinned" (not cleared!) for fire hazard reasons. The "thinning" was mostly old-growth black walnut. He sold the black walnut that was cut down, and made enough money TO FREAKING PAY FOR THE RANCH! (I think it was over $1 million bucks. He had NO IDEA that the wood was worth that.)

The moral to the story:
don't chop it up into firewood.

Veneer grade trees are HUGELY! expensive. Followed bu top grade ones that are only ridiculously expensive.