Curly walnut

[Daren]

I am stopped on this one until I get ahold of the guy to see how he wants it cut now. I had a guy call a few weeks back and said he had a little walnut log from his yard he wanted sawed. I didn't get too excited, 18"x6' whoopie $25. Well he finally dropped it off last night, when I ran out for a minute it was here when I got back. I wasn't in a big hurry to get to it... until I looked at the butt cut (homeowner logger, it was cut most of the way through then snapped off) I could tell from the fibers sticking out it was different. So I threw it on the mill this morning and cut some of the bark off. It sure looks curly to me. (the curl in the sapwood stood up before I even got the camera)



I am going to wait to see if he still wants it cut 4/4 (or if he even knows what curly is) and ask how many of these is he willing to pay for.



I will post more pics when I really get into it. Maybe I can talk him out of it. I have tons of dried stuff, why would he want this wet, nasty, naily wood when he could have some of my nice straight grained stuff instead?

[Daren]

I am confused, I flipped it over and started inching the bark off the opposite face and just a little figure at the butt. I have sawed a decent amount of walnut and never seen this. Most of the logs I have sawn were either cut by me or a couple other guys who know what they are doing. This one still has the butt swell on it. Is that common for the butt to have figure and not the rest?

[ohsoloco]

I've been working on a walnut coffee table, and when I planed a couple wide boards for the top, I noticed that there was a little curl in them, but it was just at one end of the boards. 

I've sawn tens of thousands of board feet, and I'm still waiting for an entire log to be curly  :-\

[Daren]

quote]

Me too. I prematurely posted I guess, it is just on the the end and mostly one face. The face with the nails of course >:(

[oakiemac]

Last year I sawed a knarly looking cherry that I thought was mainly junk. It was big at around 10' long and 20" dib so I decided to give it a try. As soon as I cut into the log I realized that it was curly and it was beatiful. I have never seen such nice cherry since then. It had curl all the way through the log. Needless to say that I was fairly happy. I bought the log at 40cents/bf and sold most of it in the $5-6 range. I'm still waiting on another one like that.

[Larry]

Daren, what you saw is common.  We cut walnut as close to the ground as possible.  Years ago the old timers talk bout digging walnuts to get even lower...with the idea of getting a highly figured gun stock log.

[JP Sinclair]

Darren-

Wow, curly walnut is a new one on me.  What a great looking board.  Woodworkers would lose their minds for that stuff!

JP

[Daren]

Darren-

Wow, curly walnut is a new one on me. What a great looking board. Woodworkers would lose their minds for that stuff!

JP

I am a hack woodworker, that is why I got so excited when I opened it up... that did not last long. I pulled two 4/4 off the "naily face" (with alot of sapwood) and it was gone. The rest did have some figure for a few inches on the butt. Weird little log.
Larry, I have heard about digging walnuts, but I guess I forgot why. And since the first face had figure all the way (granted it was only 6' long) It threw me.
It turned out to be another day of just sawing, pulling a few decent boards and hitting a few nails.
Another weird thing about this log, almost no pith. Just a little streak , not segmented (whatever you call it, it looks like fish gills) I have always seen.

[woodmills1]

I have cut a fair amount of maple that shows a little curl here and there.  Even seen som poplar/ aspen with just a bit of curl.  Even some of the willow that blew down recently looks like it has some curl.  But that one maple 2 logs curl left to right end to end.  Customer drove up from maryland and paid 7 bucks per.

[low_48]

Darren,
I've seen that called compression curl. I do alot of bowl turning and always take the butt swell first. Almost all species have that figure, just like under really big limbs. (That's the second place I take bowl blanks)

[ARKANSAWYER]

  Yep that is walnut metal and all.   The pattern is normal for butt cutts.   I have some walnut lumber like what you thought you had.   I will try to get a photo of it today and post it this evening.   You had better sell him his log back and charge for the blade.  ;D

[9shooter]

I had a co-worker who owned a nursery business. He told me about a curly walnut that he found and was on hand when they harvested the tree. He told me that curl in walnut was a genetic freak and so he grafted 200 trees from branchs from the curl tree. He said the whole log was curly. They limbed the tree standing and backhoed out the roots before cutting the tree down. They used a crane to lower it to the ground. Must have been worth some $

[Ironwood]

Darin,
 
  I have found some curly walnut trees that show curl throughout. They are very elusive, unlike say maple. You have to cut alot of walnut (cherry too) until you find a "GOOD" one. Hence why it is so costly on the open market.

  I just landed a WHOPPER triple crotch walnut crotch, 38" base it is IMPRESSIVE. I need to photograph it this week. I also have a huge open crotch (not an narrow "Y") that I will photo as well from another tree. REALLY nice stuff.

  I call the walnut and other trees with compression/ base curl "zone/regional curly". They/ and most trees will show areas of curl depending on physiology (sic).


Sorry these are blurry, they are ALL curly


Sorry these are blurry, they are all curly

                 Reid

                         Reid

[Burlkraft]

Ried,
Thosed are some nice looking slabs....Whatcha' gonna do with those ??? ??? ???

Ya could send 'em to me :D :D :D

[Ironwood]

Burlkraft,

  OOOOHHHHHHHHH, the wood I have stashed. If I "PASS" prematurely you guy on the FF better come to the AUCTION. There are a few better stocked outlets around the country, CS WOODS (Co.), HEARN (Pa.), Nakashima's (Pa.), but not many and sometimes I think my inventory is better cared for , not CS's though he really has a good operation.

DARIN,

  Most "BIG", meaning really big trees will have an outer veneer of curl, my understanding is that as the tree gets to monsterous proportion that the shear weight will intiate curling on the new outer growth, I have seen this and it is usually "Chevron style" graining (like a Seargents stripes on a army uniform).

                            Reid

[treecyclers]

Gee, gosh, golly darn! Them's some real FINE lookin slabs!
Where might a man get his paws on somethin so gorgeous?
If ya got some, and are willing to part with a slab or two at a fair price, IM me, so we can do some negotiatin!
I have a couple clients that would drool over such fine pieces of lumber!
You'd hear 2 thumps when they lay eyes on them - their jaw hitting the bench, then their jaw hittin the ground!
Superdave

[ARKANSAWYER]

This is a 1x12 but I could not get it out of the pile.   Hope you can see the grain as it runs the width of the boards.






  Here is a 1x4 that was trimmed off the side of a board.  The grain is like that for the whole 12 ft of the board.

[pasbuild]

Butt curl is very common in many species unfortunately it usually runs out within two feet or so, but them two feet can be awesome ;)

[Daren]

I was at first feeling kinda silly for posting before I sawed on that runt some more and saw it was not real special. I am glad I did now just for the pics you guys posted.

Reid, I REALLY dig that crotch table... and know a few others who would too $$$.

Arky, wow man . I know what a board like that one under the pile would look like sanded out and finished, Dang near put your eye out just looking at it. There are guitar/violin...makers who would give an obscene price for stock like that. I have shipped curly maple (not 1/2 that nice, or 1/20 that hard to find) to California for $15 + bft. That looks like "name your price" stuff to me. I hope to find one like it someday, really pretty wood is what keeps me eatin' dust and looking.

[Den Socling]

There is so much to read at the FF that I don't often look into this board. But I love figured wood. I have bought 'junk' from a pallet shop that was beautiful. I've shown them them dry, figured 'junk' and they call it '3-D' wood. It looks three dimensional and you have to run your fingers across the waves to see if the boards are flat. Yep. A lot is in butts and it sure is a shame to see it go to waste but it is DanG hard to dry.