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Todd Burch
12-11-2015, 6:06 PM
Not my tree, but I'll be milling it. Biggest walnut I've ever seen. 45" at the small diameter of the trunk. The guy in the picture is 6'3" tall. You can't see real well but there is about 10'+ of straight trunk, and then this MASSIVE HUNK OF TWISTING TURNING CURLY QUILTED BURLY FLAMING FEATHERING crotch!

Wish me luck. I'll be slabbing most of it.

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There is some center rot, but still a ton of wood, nonetheless. (Sorry, picture is 90 degrees off)

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Cody Colston
12-13-2015, 8:04 PM
That thing is a monster! It will be difficult sawing but I'll bet there will be some spectacular slabs that come out of it. Keep us updated on your progress. I'm interested to see what's inside.

Todd Burch
01-06-2016, 8:55 AM
I have learned that the slabber attachment for my saw is only 1.2 meters wide, which isn't long enough to slab the larger pieces. And, I just ordered two new chains for my slabber, but the chains I ordered were for the 1.5 meter bar. Grrrr.

Still waiting to hear back from Petersons on the price of a 1.5m bar.

I did go ahead with my purchase of a polyester strapping system like what Baileys sells. That will let me keep all the flitches together.

Steve Jenkins
01-06-2016, 9:38 AM
Looks like you are staying occupied Todd. Really looking forward to seeing what the slabs look like

Scott T Smith
01-07-2016, 9:02 PM
Todd, if you're not able to mill it with your slabber, look up Brandon Berdoll outside of Austin. He has a very large bandmill and the appropriate handling equipment for a log that size. PM me if you'd like his contact info.

Nice score too!

Scott

Charlie Fox
01-25-2016, 1:16 PM
Troy Swift at Swift River near Austin as well has greatly expanded his operations to a bigger mill like Berdoll and a second and even larger kiln.

Todd Burch
01-27-2016, 5:03 AM
I was able to get a 72" bar through Left Coast Supplies. Should be here this Friday. Then I'll take it to my local machine shop to get it drilled (it's a titanium alloy) so I can add an oiler.

I've seen Brandon advertise on the Houston craigslist. I've never called though. Thanks for the info on him and Troy.

Todd Burch
02-07-2016, 9:02 AM
Started slabbing the walnut. 7 logs down and a bunch to go.

Lasse Hilbrandt
02-07-2016, 10:04 AM
It never happened with out pictures; -)

Todd Burch
02-07-2016, 10:30 AM
I posted from my phone, and there was no option to add a picture!! I think the software was upgraded and regressed.

Todd Burch
02-08-2016, 8:53 AM
OK, OK. Here are the pictures.

This is one of the first slabs we cut. "OK" figure (compared to what we got later)

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A little water always help with seeing what you have.

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This was one of the nicer crotches we cut into. Most cuts we made were 3" thick.

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Another angle. I called this one "walnut crotch doing what walnut crotch does".

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I called this slab "One Sexy Board". 7.5' tall. We got 3 out of this limb. Some curl going on too in there. This was not the nicest one.

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When the day was done, we had the larger flitches stickered and strapped, ready for when he gets his trailer over here to take them to the kiln. He took the smaller logs with him in his pickup truck.

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And, not to be left out, before I took the slabber attachment off until next time I slab, I cut a 5/4 thick piece of my red oak. 8' tall and 36" wide in the middle. I have no idea what I will do with it. I can, however, move it by myself.

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Prashun Patel
02-08-2016, 9:02 AM
Thanks for posting. That is some pretty material.

Terry Hatfield
02-08-2016, 2:10 PM
Gorgeous stuff!!!

Cody Colston
02-08-2016, 6:01 PM
You don't do anything halfway, do you? You get your first mill and then score one of the biggest Walnut trees in captivity. Now you are turning out unbelievable flitches.

Can you tell I'm envious?

Todd Burch
02-08-2016, 8:01 PM
I'm just cutting what God made!

Chris Padilla
02-09-2016, 4:27 PM
Awesome! I just LOOOOVE walnut!

Danny Hamsley
02-12-2016, 9:25 PM
Well done!

Dennis Peacock
02-13-2016, 11:00 AM
Love that stuff.!!!!

Todd Burch
02-16-2016, 9:02 AM
Thanks Danny. Next time to cut more of it will be Feb 27 - we'll cut from dawn to dusk.

Todd Burch
05-10-2016, 10:11 AM
The walnut is almost all cut up. Part of one log to complete and a couple other chunks to slab out as well. Customer has already picked up the first trailer load from this kiln guy, and has also taken his second trailer load to be dried. I saw the first trailer load after it was dry and it looked great. Boards were flat, they had a good color and no checking or splitting.

This is the last log we're cutting. It was the lower trunk section. As pictured on the track loader it is 7.5' long.

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It was 9', but he wanted some cookies, so we cut 18" off the base, where the hollow hole was smallest, carried it over to the saw and made 5 cookies. They measure about 41" narrow diameter x 54" wide diameter x 3 1/4" thick. They cut really well with the rip chain. I was surprised.

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And, the last log queued up to saw. We've since cut the top section off, from which we'll get 4 slabs: 2 @ 3", 1 @ 2" and 1 @ ~1.25". The 3"ers will be 34" to 37" wide by 7.5' long.

Cody Colston
05-10-2016, 11:38 AM
I do believe you are having a blast with that swing mill and slabber. That's some cool Walnut.

How man total BF do you think you got from that tree?

Todd Burch
05-10-2016, 12:21 PM
Estimating probably around 2200-2300 bf.

~1400 bf in first kiln run.
~750 is second kiln run
~200 bf left to cut.

Todd Burch
05-10-2016, 12:56 PM
Here are some pics of the last few cuts and the remaining logs to be cut.

First, the stack of 5 cookies. We sealed these, both sides, immediately after each cut. The last round in the background we went ahead and sealed and saved. It was the top cut, so the thickness goes from pretty thin to 5" thick. It was the stump cut that whoever felled the tree made.

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In the above pic, at the top left, you can just see another chunk that needs to be cut. It's about a 16" square hunk of wood, about 2' long before it tapers into what made up the inside of the hollow part of the log. Not sure how we'll cut that. The owner might just leave it whole and dry it and sell it to a turner for large bowls. There should be some good figure in it.

Here's the remaining part of the hollow butt section. It needs to be flipped over and leveled up so the red crayon line lines up with the saw chain for the final slabbing cuts. We will get some real nice slabs. The other end of the log has plenty of meat since the hollow hole is a lot smaller.

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Here's the top of the log we cut off and the board /slabs we took off after cutting the top off. The top will go back on the mill to get the additional 4 slabs out of it. We got 8 thick boards out of the middle edges (two are not shown).

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Here's the piece I am really looking forward to cutting. Part of this wood will make up his payment to me. Gun stock blanks will be a comin'!

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Cody Colston
05-10-2016, 4:03 PM
Todd, those aren't cookies you cut, they're doughnuts! Don't have to worry about the pith cracking, either. :D

Scott T Smith
05-12-2016, 8:41 PM
Sweet work Todd!

Todd Burch
05-22-2016, 1:05 AM
Finally finished up slabbing the walnut tree. We cut 26 slabs on Friday. It was an awesome day of production. I have a bit of carving boards out with the swing blade from the top slabs and then I'll be done with this sucker.

I'll take pictures of the stacks on Sunday. It's a lot of wood. There was a surprising amount of gorgeous wood in this tree. Tons of curl, tons of crotch and we found some awesome quilted burl too. We cut those in 4" x 14" x ~20" pieces.

Todd Burch
06-27-2016, 11:56 PM
Here are the last pics I'm going to post about cutting this log up. Close to 3500bf by all estimates. It was a lot of work cutting around the hollow sections.

I call this the trumpet. It's part of my portion. I thought it was cool looking. Nice figure too. It's a small piece (in the scheme of things). Car keys for scale.

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This is one of the 3 burl blocks produced. Also part of my portion.

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These are the two remaining stacks that need to be kiln dried.

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These are pictures of the two kiln dried trailer loads. The first two pics are the same trailer load from two angles.

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