Walnut

[treemeup]

We felled a mature black walnut today, unfortunately it had grown a foot from a wall so pulling the root ball out was out of the question but the main stem is really dark right out to the sapwood. We were meant to be logging it for the clients son but decided against it! So financially speaking whats the best sizes to mill it?

Here's a pic of a piece from the upper crown to show the colour of the wood. the main stem is probably 60-70 cm DBH.

[Rob D]

That's a lovely colour. What size to mill it? Tricky question to answer. In fact can't answer it!! I'd do 2" slabs with the odd 3" myself if chainsawmilling!

[Ben Ballard]

:thumbup1:very nice ,what length is the main stem?

[WADKIN]

I would agree with Rob, 2" in the main, with a bit of 3" for leg stock of of the rift boards either side of the heart when through and through, that way it shows straight grain on the four faces.

As it is walnut it can always be resawn for stile/rails, panels by the maker, without too many problems. Sometimes i would cut a bit 1.25" but 2" is popular with most.

Of course you could always just flog me the stem and i will make all decisions and dilemma's go away.

[treemeup]

ok, yeah its gotta be chainsaw milled because of access, which is a bit of a shame in itself. the main stem isn't that long, 7-8 ft.

thanks for the advice guys, i'll post some pics of the planks

[Theocus]

Want to borrow my mill then!!! Lol

[PeteB]

Why do we still use metric feet and inches with a mix of cm too boot?

[John Hughes]

I would say 2.25". If you cut it at 2" then after shrinkage ,resawing and planing you could end up with some pretty thin boards.