For You Black Walnut People, Is this unusual?

[Brian Brown]

So I have an odd question, and I suppose this qualifies as a stealth gloat also. My neighbor across the street is a tree trimmer who contracts out to the utility companies to remove trees from the power lines. About a year ago, I helped his wife with an incredibly simple project, and I mentioned that as her husband cuts trees, I wouldn't mind getting some wood for you know what. She asked what kind I wanted, and I told her that I really only wanted burls, or black walnut. This wouldn't seem like such a strange request except that I can count the number of Black walnut trees I have seen here on my fingers, while sitting on one hand. She laughed, and told me not to plan on any black walnut around here. Such is life.

Well, Monday she stopped at the house while I was eating breakfast, and asked if I still wanted some walnut. I said yes, and she said it was on its way. Three minutes later, I had a whole black walnut tree in the driveway. Now I have two questions. When am I going to find time time to cut and wax it, and the one for the collective knowledge of the SMC turners, looking at the pictures of the end grain, is it unusual to have such a high percentage of the log in sapwood? Most of the walnut I have seen in the past has considerably more heartwood than sapwood. In the picture with two branches about the same diameter, the one on the left came from Kansas a couple of years ago. Less sapwood in that one, and it seemed to me to have a lot compared to some I got from the Maryland area. While I don't mind some sapwood mixed with the dark, it seems that a high percentage of this will go to waste. Just wondering if this amount of sapwood is unusual. It's not like I see a lot of it here.

[Roger Chandler]

Brian,

You can get some very striking patterns in walnut with the sapwood and the heartwood if you center the blank for a bowl. I would say that the tree in the picture is young and that is the reason you are not seeing as much heartwood. I would make the best of this opportunity, as it seems from your comments that it does not come along very often.

I would only turn away as much sapwood as I needed to. Another option if you are making bowls is to do a natural edge........leaving the bark, and you will also have a lighter band of sapwood at the top right under the bark edge.

[Dick Wilson]

Brian, The first thing I would do is anchor seal the log ends as is. As you need a piece for cutting cut then. Those look great for end grain hollow turning. The form will really emphasize the heart wood/ sap wood combination.

[Dan Forman]

I think you get a higher sap:heart ratio on branches than on trunks, climate/rainfall, and age of tree may also play a part. You might think about doing things other than bowls in order to maximize the amount of dark wood in your pieces.

Dan

[Bob Bergstrom]

Put as big a plastic tarp as can over the log ASAP, then get the anchor seal out and paint them ASAP.

[Donny Lawson]

Yeah, the younger the tree the more sap you will have. I have some small walnut pieces just like that and some bigger pieces that are all dark inside. Either way walnut is fun to work with.

[John Hart]

Nice score Brian.....I can't think of a single walnut tree in all the time I lived in I.F. Of course, that was so long ago, I don't think your tree was born yet. Congratulations! With your skill....there ought to be some treasures created from that pile.

[Jon Lanier]

My experience with Walnut is you don't have to panic getting it cut up. Walnut is the friendliest stuff. I procured walnut that was down for over a year and in the elements and just needed to clip the ends off. Saying that... sooner would be better.

[Bob Bergstrom]

I was given about 500 board feet of Kentucky walnut and it had some board that were 10" wide and 8' long and it was totally white sap wood. I have always wonder how big the tree had to be to have sap wood that big.

[William Bachtel]

Heres the scoop, all trees have sapwood, and heartwood, sapwood carries the sap or water with its dinner in it. Walnut has around 7 or 8 growth rings of sapwood, and any number of heartwood rings depending on its age. Heres the tricky part if a Walnut trees grows in a dense woods with lots of surrounding trees than the sapwood will be close together, if it grows in a yard enviroment than they will be spaced out and wide apart, due to lots of sun, food, and water. Hope this helps out. When a Walnut tree is l0 years old, 8 years of sapwood and only two of heartwood.

[Bill Bolen]

I totally agree with William. I took down a Walnut from my yard by the pool. It was about 30+ years old or so. Big time sap wood all thru the trunk and especially the branch wood. I had another come down in the thick woods behind the house. Only water it got was from the rain and had a lot of competition surrounding it. The sap wood was 80% reduced...Bill...

[Cody Colston]

I agree with Bill who agrees with William.

The less competition the tree has, the faster it grows. The faster it grows, the more sapwood it needs to supply that growth since it's only the sapwood that transports nutrients form the roots to the leaves.

I had some 12" diameter Walnut sawn recently that had less than 1/2 inch of sapwood. It all depends on where the tree grew along with how much water and nutrients it received.

BTW, nice score on the Walnut.

[steve mcconnell]

I scored some downed walnut a few years ago. Made a couple bowls immediately. The contrast between the heart and sapwood was what made the bowls interesting, and was very striking.

I did not cut up the remaining wood, but anchorsealed the ends and covered the logs with a tarp. I came back about 6-9 months later, and the contrast between woods was pretty much gone with the sapwood now pretty gray. Talked to my father about that (retired Forest Ranger) who said that was pretty common with walnut if you did not cut it up.

Process into blanks as much as you can as quick as you can.

steve

[Montgomery Scott]

Based on where you got the tree I am going to say what you got is not an Eastern walnut tree but is probably of the fruit bearing variant more common around here. Fruit bearing woods tend to put their energy into fruit production and thus have a much higher percentage of sapwood.

I purchased some slabs from a walnut fruit tree grown in Oregon. The tree was 160' tall and I got some slabs 28" wide that came from the larger branches. The heart wood is significantly lighter than eastern walnut and is about evenly split between heart and sapwood.