Use for Walnut slabs

[WH_Conley]

I guess the truck are supposed to start hauling Walnut in to my place in the morning. A fellow says he has about 30k feet. I am supposed to saw it all. That is going to be a lot of slabs. I never thought they were that good for firewood. Does anybody know of a use for them?

[dgdrls]

All slabs??  Lots of tables I guess?

DGDrls

[WDH]

I assume that you mean the bark slabs first cut off the log with all bark on one side?

[WH_Conley]

Yep, WDH, that is what they are. Just normal waste.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I have no use for them UNLESS.....I can get a stool or small bench slab out of them.

[Delawhere Jack]

When I mill walnut, the slabs tend to be REALLY THIN. ;) I go at those suckers like I'm butchering venison tenderloin, nothing goes to waste.  8)

[Brad_bb]

Just thinking out loud.  Could you cover an interior wall with them as an interesting texture?  Maybe kiln dry them to make sure they are bug free, then spray a top coat on the bark to seal/smooth it a bit.  Just an idea.  Wall of your workshop or house?  I know a guy who has build doors and in the panels he uses bark.  He soaks it to make it pliable to flatten out.  If you edge the slabs so they are all the same width and roughly the same thickness, it's then a specialty material.  If you figure out how to separate the bark from the slab, soak and flatten it, and stack it, kiln dry it, you then have another specialty material.

I think of myself as the "Woodmizer", not because I have one of their mills, but because I waste almost no wood.  I've been giving away my clean hardwood sawdust lately on Craigslist.  One guy made Saw dust stoves from large tin cans for camping.  For that they need clean hardwood saw dust and I keep mine from being contaminated with plywood/OSB dust or garbage or epoxy.

I have one box that I collect hardwood that actually is scrap, kindling size mostly, and it goes for kindling in a friends fireplace.

[sealark37]

I was looking for a small piece of walnut some years ago to make a forearm for an old Ithaca pump gun.  I found out that "There is no such thing as scrap walnut".  Some woodworker or gunsmith wants the heartwood from your slabs.  Regards, Clark

[drobertson]

30k is a good bit,  only suggestion I can offer is take some of the swelled ends and make a fire wood pile with these shorts, then have a slab rack ready with banding material ready to band.  If I were to guesstimate, you are looking at the neighborhood of 20 bundles, size depending of course.  You might find a local mill that burns them for fuel in their kiln operation.   sorting and saving this many slabs would take away some of the mill time for sure. 

[Larry]

I've sawed a lot of walnut and used the slabs as ditch fillers.  I've tried to get rid of them as firewood but they generate a lot of ash, and create lots of creosote in the chimney.  Lots more than other species.  Once folks find that out they only use em once.

I have seen them used as a fence around one of the beer gardens at the Bikes, Blues, & BBQ here.

[scsmith42]

Won't those be primarily comprised of sapwood?

[WH_Conley]

Yes, they would be mostly sap wood.

[WH_Conley]

They are here. I would say the full 30K. Small stuff. The straight ones will saw pretty fast, no such thing as grade sawing. I don't know what the market is, going over seas. There is going to be a bunch of slabs. Just a thought. Does anyone sweat them and use the sap for stain or anything like that ?

[dyates]

Man, that's a bunch of walnut for this part of the world.  Must be one of the exporters.  Only use I can think of is same as any hardwood.  If you have the ability to debark the logs and chip the slabs, sell them for boiler fuel.  Last I heard, a walking floor load was about $1000, depending on who, when, and where. 

[WH_Conley]

Yep, that is a bunch. Going to China when done. They are running all over trying to buy more. Anybody have a mill in North Eastern Kentucky and need a job. I can hook ya right up.

[dyates]

I wonder what they pay for those little logs.  I might be better off to sell logs and save my back.

[WH_Conley]

I don't know for sure. I think between 35 and 65 cents a foot. Some of them I am not fooling with. Firewood is firewood in any species.