Advice needed for onsite carving of a Walnut?? located Kent

[kentjames]

Hi all,

 

I have a regular client who as a large Walnut in the back garden of their farmhouse. The tree has just been condemned by myself as it has a major issue of rot and hollows around 6ft up where an old branch ripped out some years back, its cavities sound even worse than the visible hole so its coming down.

 

They would like, if possible, to provide a long lasting legacy for the tree by having the remaining trunk of the tree carved onsite into something (they have no idea what yet!) Also perhaps using some of the larger timber further up to construct a bench for the garden also.

 

Questions are:

 

1/ Is Walnut a suitable candidate for carving in this way? The tree is around 30-36" DBH and the wood from the ground up to around 4 - 5 ft sounds solid. (No guarantee it will be until cut)

 

2/ Being that the cost of removing the tree is significant, is it fine to leave the carving of the trunk for a few months after removing the tree? (I think it would be but knowing absolutely nothing about carving I thought it best to ask!)

 

3/ Are there any chainsaw carvers in Kent, or East Sussex or Essex, who might be interested in the job of carving it and if so can you provide me with some images or websites with your work so I can show the client?

 

Many many thanks in advance

James

[Big Beech]

Hi all,

The tree has just been condemned by myself as it has a major issue of rot and hollows around 6ft up where an old branch ripped out some years back, its cavities sound even worse than the visible hole so its coming down.

 

ground up to around 4 - 5 ft sounds solid. (No guarantee it will be until cut)

 

so, cant the tree be saved by pruning and reducing the weight? or has it been condemed just for the need of carving something?

if is still standing and alive, give the tree a chance?

[AlvinD]

I'm pretty sure kentjames has took all this into consideration

[kentjames]

We were originally going to pollard or heavily reduce it but the tree is barely 20ft from the house and leans around 20 degrees towards the house. So even as the tree grows out again with the weight of the epicormic regrowth it could fail and with its proximity and faults everyone is agreed it would be best to remove it. If the house and young children were not a direct target for it then it may be a different story.

[agg221]

Walnut isn't the world's most durable timber outdoors, but with suitable sealing it will last a fair while. If it's going to weather relatively quickly, it's probably worth thinking about bolder, simple forms rather than lots of detail work. If it's going up the middle it may be worth thinking about a form that allows retention of a bit more height up the edges - something shard-like.

 

The other option would be, once the top is off, to see just how long the sound bit is, and how much heartwood. If there's a lot of heartwood and only a narrow sapwood band, and a decent proportion of the total cross-sectional area is sound, they may do better to keep the maximum length of straight material possible and dig out the stump full-length, having this milled in-situ to subsequently create something for indoor use, meanwhile looking out for a lump of oak/cedar to put in its place as a more durable carved specimen. Milling through the stump is a risk to damaging chains, but if taken into account in the kit used is perfectly viable - see http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/alaskan-mill/49031-need-some-milling-done-near-ipswich.html

 

Alec

[kentjames]

Thanks Alec, food for thought there.

 

Any other carvers care to comment?

[Frankie Lawrence]

Hi James ill pm you a number of a guy local to us mainly deals in making stuff with a mill and from sweet chestnut but is very very good. Where abouts is the job?

 

 

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[kentjames]

Cheers Frank, its located up near Lenham / Maidstone area. J