Walnut drying on the stump?

[WV Sawmiller]

   I have several dead black walnut trees on my place that have been dead for many years in some cases. On at least a couple nearly all the sapwood has already fallen off. They range from around 14"-24" dbh. I am thinking about cutting and sawing them in the Spring. They are too close to where I deer hunt right now and the biggest one can only be accessed with my ATV when it has been real dry for a good while.

   I am wondering how much moisture I am going to find in that dead walnut heartwood. I'm thinking the tops and larger limbs might be prime candidates for making cookies. I'm hoping they would be less likely to crack without a lot of extra treatment. I cut some cookies off a big dead walnut tree that had been down 4 years or so and they did pretty good but I coated both sides thickly with Anchorseal and some customers did not like that.

   Has anybody ever cut old dead walnuts like that and have any lessons learned or suggestions to pass along about how they are for lumber and cookies?

[Crossroads]

I'm torn, I'm not sure if I should be more excited about the black walnut or how you do hunting lol. I'm definitely jealous that you have black walnut and whitetail deer on your place. All I have is incense cedar and goats 🐐

[WV Sawmiller]

   Yeah, we love it here. Been here 27.5 years. We have about 42 acres that would be over 80 if it were flat as rises over 450' (See why I love my ATV!). I have 2 shooting houses in key spots and even one ladder stand about 300 yards from my front door and a climber on the back corner. Creek in the front yard supplies my fish bait. Lots of walnuts and some big wild cherry scattered around the place. I have 3 feed sacks full of walnuts husked and ready to dry a little more and crack. Plenty of poplar up in the hollers that I am thinning on demand. I'm 8 miles from the boat landing on the Bluestone Lake where I catch way more big catfish than I can use.

[Kbeitz]

From what I have seen the longer it's dead the darker the wood.
I bet it's in good shape.

[Magicman]

The cookies should be OK.  I sawed a batch in 2012 from a dead Walnut log that I have loaned out for weddings, etc. many times.  None cracked.

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn,

   I knew you had a loaner set and that is along the lines of what I am thinking. I thought you said somewhere they had been cut from a dead walnut.

   My photographer wife does a few weddings each year so looks like might be something handy she could offer in her packages. If not she works with the local florists for weddings and they typically have wedding supplies and might be interested.

[Magicman]

I have pictures of the sawing and also of the sanded cookies, but where oh where??   smiley_dizzy

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn,

   They say the memory is the second thing to go and I can't remember what the first one was. :D

[moodnacreek]

When you see these trees starting to die cut them into saw logs and go to it. Live logs are what you want not decay. Dead logs are not really dry. IT has to be sawn and stickered.

[bandmiller2]

Not sure about walnut but I've found wood will not dry much in log form, needs to be milled or split. Frank C.

[Magicman]

 

 
I can assure you that the Walnut "log" that I sawed the above mentioned cookies from was fairly dry.  :D

[Qweaver]

How do they use the cookies at a wedding?

[TKehl]

I've got some walnut in that condition that I've been cutting, but none that large.  8" diameter has been the biggest.

One was a blow down with the top hung in other trees.  At least 5 years dead miniumum.  No sapwood left at all.  It was noticeably wetter when cut off near the stump, but the upper sections had almost no checking.

Standing dead Oak, not as friendly.   :D

[Magicman]

How do they use the cookies at a wedding?

"Coasters" for table decorations. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Ones I saw used probably same as MM listed. They'd have one on every small table at the reception dinner usually with the flower arrangement sitting on them.

   The trees on my place have certainly been dead as long as the one the MM is carrying and some many years. I suspect some have been dead 20 years or more. The biggest one probably died within the last 5 years or so since I last saw any leaves on it. All the bark is slipping off it now.

[Bigc1989]

How thick do yins usually cut cookies?

[Brad_bb]

I just cuts 'em and saws 'em!  I just milled a standing dead walnut today,  It has been dead for a long time.  Bark was falling off easily.  The outer layer of sapwood had started to rot.  Nothing wrong with the heatwood though.  12' trunk made and 8x10x12'  while the two branches on top made for some curved brace stock.

[Southside]

Must have been Black Walnut Saturday or something as I did the same thing today.  This one had been down for at least 5 years - that was when I first noticed it on the ground.  Same results too - sapwood was starting to decay in a couple of inches but the heart wood was just fine.  Toward the root ball she had more moisture than out toward the top, but nothing like a fresh, live one. 

[thecfarm]

My white pine is along ways from walnut.  ;D But I have cut alot that was dead. Bark fell off,not much for limbs.The wood inside is nice and white,just like a tree that I cut that was alive. And some of them I split,the water would ooze out of them where the wedge would enter the wood.

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 
   One of the walnut trees I am thinking about is in the center of this picture. Its about 30 yards from my deer feeder so won't cut it before 31 December when our current deer season ends.