Cut my first Walnut

[Osric]

Co-worker of my wife had a black walnut tree down and gave me the log(s).  2 8' sections about 14" in diameter...one pretty straight, one a little ugly.  Since I only have an Oscar 18, these were perfect for me.

Well, I made my first cut and was a bit surprised to find that the outside of the log was almost pure white.  I'm sure you experienced guys knew this already, but being the newbie that I am, I was a little surprised by that.  I squared it off and flat sawed boards getting 5-9", 5-7" and 5-6" (and one more that I should get a couple good feet out of that I forgot to trim down).  But here is my question:

Some of the boards have the nice dark interior with a white exterior...so on the 9" board, there may only be 7" of the dark wood there.  Would it be better in the future (and the woman who gave me the logs has promised me several more in the near future) to just cut away all the white and only saw the black wood?

I doubt if I'll sell any of this...will probably make myself a poker table next year with it, so I may keep the mixed look, I may trim it down to size, or I may stain it....not sure yet.  But how do you all handle walnut?  Keep the mixed colors or eliminate the white and only cut the dark?

[oldsaw]

Some of both.  I keep a few pieces with some white just in case I have a cool idea.  Can always trim it off if needed.

Mark

[beenthere]

Osric

You are finding out that a 14" walnut log is really on the small size for sawing.
Not much left if you don't want to make use of the light-colored sapwood. On some walnut trees, that sapwood is not very wide, but on some, it is quite a substantial portion of the log.
20" diam and larger are better for yield of the heartwood.

[dad2nine]

I gotta limit myself on how much walnut I cut, if I cut to much, it does weird things to me smiley_whacko

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Sometimes how to handle the sap wood on Walnut - or another valuable wood
may depend on the log itself.    Very thin sapwood may be simpler to dispose of
as you saw the log.  Sap wood on the edge of a quarter-sawn White Oak board
will increase the bow in that board.   Do you want a wider, but bowed board, or
a narrower, but straighter White Oak board?

On the other hand, I recently cut a 14" Black Cherry "thru-and-thru," leaving
the bark and sap wood in place.   The 17" butt log from the same tree I flat sawed for
6", 8", and 10" boards without the sap and stacked those boards on top of the wider stuff.
Just a choice, since I know of some potential customers for both "looks."

Phil L.

[Dan_Shade]

Ga_Boy and I sawed up a whack of walnut yesterday:









What effects does walnut have on you, dad2nine?  I was thinking today, that I should get a good dust mask/breather thing to wear while cutting some of these woods.

[Bibbyman]

I'd leave the white wood on.  In the total scheme of things it doesn't add up to that much and it makes for a pretty contrast. Besides, you could always cut it off but you can't put it back on.

Did you notice that the dark wood was green when you first lift the board off the mill?  The green only last a few seconds.

[dad2nine]

Sawing up to much walnut causes my sinus' to do back flips. When my sinus' starts acting up it makes me into a head case. Not to mention the smell of black walnut to me is down right nasty, I would rather cut red oak and smell like puke than black walnut any day. I know a lot of people say black walnut smells like money. It does smell of money and is perhaps one of the easiest wood to sell around here.

When I first started sawing walnut I would try and edge off the sap wood. That is till an  experienced sawyer told me that's not how to saw walnut. He said "go for maximum board width even it has a little spot of wane, experienced furniture builders know how to work around that..." Now when I saw it,  I don't mess around much with it. I just try and get it off the mill as quick as possible. I got a bunch of black walnut to saw this week, I think I'll try and push it off till next week, it's by far my least favorite log to have on the mill.

Thanks

[Larry]

When sawing walnut with mixed sap/heartwood it will warp more...mostly cupping as it dries.  Not a problem as I generally straight-line rip after it is kiln dried.  So I vote to leave it on. 

Dad book matches some of the boards while building furniture projects and leaves the sapwood to the center...quite interesting.

Maybe more than ya want to know but on the wholesale side, sapwood is generally not a defect.  They run all the lumber through the steamer and it all comes out an even (ugly) brown.

bt, I wouldn't mind sawing 14" walnut all day...every day...at least for the wholesale market when on Doyle.  Heck, I've seen many logs that small going to the veneer market.

dad2nine, walnut is close to my favorite to saw.  Something about the black turning to green dollars. ;D  Iffen ya look in my gallery you might see a bunch of walnut pictures.

[Bibbyman]

Two things I don't like about sawing walnur are...

The thick, soft, deep bark tends to pick up rocks and dirt.  And small walnut logs build a slab pile faster than a lumber stack (due to the thick bark.)

It stains your hands or whatever else that rubs up against it.

Oh yea,  sawing 8/4 walnut all day will make your butt drag out your tracks at the end of the day!

[WDH]

Osric, in my opinion, it is what it is.  Take it.  Personally, I love the contrast.  There are ways to make the contrast dramatic in a piece.  If you are sawing for the wholesale furniture market, like has been said in an earlier post, they steam the wood to make the color even.  However, the natural unsteamed wood has much more vibrant color and character.  I say let the log be what it is and take advantage of that unique character.  The wood can have blue, white, green, yellow, and a vermillion red in it .  To me that is so cool!

Also, personally, I find the smell of walnut as it is being sawn a very unique and distinctive smell.  Nothing else like it. 

[metalspinner]

I love the smell of walnut.  The sap and heartwood contrast is one of my favorate aspects of walnut lumber.

I was once told by an arborist that walnut growing in a dry area like the top of a hill will have a narrow band of sap and walnut at the bottom of a hill (wetter soil) will have a broad band of sap.  It sounds logical, but is it true?

[Larry]

Yes

To expand a little walnut likes fertile soil and water but not to much.  It doesn't grow fast on south or west slopes...but sometimes slow growth equals dollars.

[Ianab]

I was once told by an arborist that walnut growing in a dry area like the top of a hill will have a narrow band of sap and walnut at the bottom of a hill (wetter soil) will have a broad band of sap.  It sounds logical, but is it true?

Probably correct. The sapwood is the new wood thats being layed down by the growing tree. It changes to heartwood after a number of years, how long depends on the species. So a tree in a good growing site will have wide annual rings, and those last 10? rings of sapwood will be wide. A tree on a tougher site will be growing slower, so the new sapwood will be narrower. Also means the tougher site will grow slower, and a mature tree who's growth has slowed down will also have  narrow sapwood.

Cheers

Ian

[Don_Papenburg]

That would not be the situation on my farm .  I was mowing here one wet summer day and as I was going up hill it was getting slippery and slipperier and finaly I was digging rutts . Had to back down the hill to the dry groung.

[woodhick]

metalspinner, I had always heard that of walnut having more sap in wetter locations, but I'm not so sure anymore.   Most walnut around here grows around the creeks.  I have cut some that have a wide sap ring and the next one won't.  Not sure why.  I have cut walnuts that were on high ground and they were a lot harder and more dense but couldn't tell any difference in the amount of sap.   

[treebucker]

Got about 8-10 walnut logs waitng for the mill. Dropped the crown of one tree onto the side of a hill. It was loaded with nuts and they coated the side of the hill  When I went to cut the top off it was like walking on golf balls. Got one more tree to cut. Should have about 6, 8' logs in it.

I like the smell of walnut. Reminds me of the wild blackberry jam cake with bourbon and black walnuts my mom used to make. digin1

[Haytrader]

 :

Yep, most threads turn to food.

:D

[dad2nine]

FOOD  I LIKE FOOD

[WDH]

metalspinner, I had always heard that of walnut having more sap in wetter locations, but I'm not so sure anymore.   Most walnut around here grows around the creeks.  I have cut some that have a wide sap ring and the next one won't.  Not sure why.  I have cut walnuts that were on high ground and they were a lot harder and more dense but couldn't tell any difference in the amount of sap.   

Walnut sapwood is probably like people.......some are fat and some are thin ;D.  Anything else might be over-analyzation ;).

[dad2nine]

I was very glad to hear the log yard owner say today that we won't be buying anymore walnut logs for a while. Not buying walnut logs means there will be none to saw - YES -  8)