(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30711/20150709_094616~0.jpg)
I sawed these beautiful slabs this morning into 6 & 8/4 thickness. I felt they would make great coffee table slabs.
they look killer Scott! have to ask, blade got an off set tooth?
Absolutely beautiful
Yeah Dave
I actually bent the blade a little the day before when I ran the blade into the end of a log a little too hard. But as they say, it'll plane out ;)
Yea, I kinda like the ribs once in awhile, they make nice touch off points,, killer looking live edge man, I was hoping to get a good walnut tread going, just walnut, but we can use yours too, I don't care, I just simply love walnut when it comes around ya know. Real glad you got things working your way, and bet you can testify it's a battle getting going,,
Dave you're right again. You know the history of how I got my 70. It's a great mill, but at 10 yrs. Of age, even with only 198 hrs on it when I bought it, I had many issues pop up with it.
And other issues such as log procurement, cash flow, theft, labor issues, etc. But things are looking up and I'm hoping to broker a sweet deal much like Custom Sawyer has.
As for the walnut, it is one of my favorite species. I'd love to run into some that I could make some gun stock blanks out of ;)
That is some good looking wood
When sawing walnut, do you add anything to the water for blade lube?
Quote from: Planman1954 on July 09, 2015, 10:35:24 PM
When sawing walnut, do you add anything to the water for blade lube?
When I saw Walnut, I ALWAYS start off with a brand new blade.
I will saw through the log. When I bring the blade back, I wash the blade with lube ( water and soap ) to clean anything that may be on it. I then turn the lube off, let the blade run and sling any lube off and proceed with the next cut.
I do the same thing on each cut. I do not run the lube while cutting. Just my way of doing it.
Wow! Here we go again.
Y'all treat Walnut like it is "very valuable" or something. ?? ???
I haven't sawn very many Walnut logs, but some, and when ever I'm sawing Walnut I always use a slow (1 drip/second or so) drip of water with soap mix.
Thanks for the replies guys! I just love to open up a log and see what's inside ;) it's almost like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates ;D
Run Forrest Run. 8)
Quote from: Magicman on July 10, 2015, 08:06:54 AM
Y'all treat Walnut like it is "very valuable" or something. ?? ???
It often takes me 3-4 opening cuts on the next job after milling walnut to get myself out of "walnut mode".
I don't like to leave anything in the slabs but bark. But then, I've also been known to lick my dinner plate clean after a good meal as well. ;)
Well...... it sure beats sweetgum :D ;D
Quote from: Planman1954 on July 09, 2015, 10:35:24 PM
When sawing walnut, do you add anything to the water for blade lube?
I don't saw it any different that than any other hardwood, except faster :D. Cotton picker spindle cleaner and water for lube. Most logs are small, it's a pretty soft wood, there's lots of sapwood I have to whittle off, knots to dodge, and it's turn and burn.
YH
Quote from: Delawhere Jack on July 10, 2015, 07:17:49 PM
I don't like to leave anything in the slabs but bark.
Are you sawing so boards are sapwood heavy on one face and heartwood in the other? White on one side of the board, dark on the other?
Any time I mill walnut worse than a 50/90 board, (50% heartwood on one side, 90% heartwood on the other) the board warps badly when it dries, pulling toward the sapwood. Even though it looks flat off the mill, it will warp like a leaf spring when it's dry. So I take heavy opening cuts, slabbing off white sapwood layers.
What do you guys do?
Thanks
I too slab my walnut like you do with a lot of sapwood on one side of the top and bottom slabs. But I put 6 cement blocks on top of an 8' stack which has helped the cupping.
I have had the same problem with heavy sapwood on one side and heartwood on the other. I just end up cutting the bow out by making shorter boards after the wood is dry. Some people with buy a short walnut board with a lot of color.
Is it fact or fiction if you let a walnut log sit for a wile the dark will migrate and darken the sapwood.?? Frank C.
I have found that to be so in my limited experience with walnut. A few months ago I milled some walnut that had been cut for some time. There was little or no sap wood color to it.
Another sawmiller buddy of mine says the same thing
I don't know if the color migrates from the heartwood but the sapwood will darken, or in some cases rot off. ;D
I have seen the sapwood gray stain, but never to the same rich color as the heartwood.
I haven't seen the color migrate into the sapwood. But I have heard that steaming the walnut will stain the sapwood to a closer match with the heartwood. Most of my walnut gets milled within a few days of being cut (I can't wait to see what it looks like!).
Steaming, yes, but steaming also dulls the natural colors in the heartwood from what I have seen.
I have customers that only want air dried Walnut and will absolutely turn away from kiln dried Walnut.
Quote from: POSTONLT40HD on July 11, 2015, 09:55:23 PM
I have customers that only want air dried Walnut and will absolutely turn away from kiln dried Walnut.
I have seen this also, and that's one of the advantageous of a low temperature dehumidification kiln as opposed to a steam kiln. The DH kiln, if operated correctly, will preserve the rich colors to the point that even air dried only folks will snap the lumber up.
I get a lot of my lumber planed at a professional wood and millwright shop down the road that purchases many, many thousands of Bdft of steam kiln dried lumber of most commercial species from all over the country. Many times the owners and I have compared the properties of my DH wood to theirs, side by side, and there is a significant difference in some wood species. The steam kilned dried walnut will be duller and grayer, losing much of its highlights, cherry will have more brown and less red, and even sassafras shows almost a complete loss of chatoyance, which is one of the major reasons people buy sassafras.
When I buy walnut logs, one of the things that really affects yield is the thickness of the sap ring. Since the logs are Doyle scaled (around here) then the thicker the sap ring, the less yield per log of heartwood because I'm buying and paying on log diameter, not heartwood diameter. So thats why I wish I could make a mostly sapwood board behave and not curve so badly when I dry it because it's costing me money, and I hate throwing money into the burn pile. And walnut ain't a cheap log to be wasting wood.