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View Full Version : Using Green Slabs for Rustic Furniture



ShawnE Curry
05-07-2016, 1:28 AM
I took down an English Walnut over at my sisters house a couple weeks ago. The last 2 harsh winters we had in '13 and '14 killed it, and it had started dropping large branches anytime we had a decent gust of wind.

I noticed some curly grain in the notch, so I thought I might find some nice figure near the stump. Turns out the curl ran the entire length of the trunk! There weren't any straight sections longer than 4' but I got a lot of really nice pieces out of it.

The sap wood looks especially curly so I kept all of the wane cuts to use for some rustic furniture. I'm thinking about using them green and banging them out this weekend so I can give one to my mom and sister. I planed one of them out and turned a few tenons on some walnut firewood for some legs.

My question is, what would you so for a finish at this point, if any? The ends are sealed with anchor seal and branch holes will be too.

ShawnE Curry
05-07-2016, 8:36 AM
http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb439/CurrDogg420/Mobile%20Uploads/image_25.jpg

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Cody Colston
05-07-2016, 8:56 AM
I would never build furniture with green wood, especially with beautiful Walnut like you have there. Also, you have to define "rustic." If you do build green, leave it unfinished.

Malcolm McLeod
05-07-2016, 10:08 AM
The only thing I've heard of being made with green wood is chairs. Not my comfort zone, but I think the idea is to make legs of green riven stock, and the stretchers out of bone dry stock. On assembly, the stretcher tenon pulls moisture out of the leg. Tenon swells, leg shrinks :: takes a stick of dynamite to separate them.

Good looking log! ...Yell if it gets in your way.

ShawnE Curry
05-07-2016, 1:14 PM
The rest of the tree is stacked in my garage. The pieces I'm using were the "waste" and headed for the firewood pile. I plan on using some dry black walnut firewood for the legs. I turned some tapered tenons on them and I plan to leave them a little loose to account for shrinkage of the slab. The beauty of this project is, it's already firewood. If it splits, well, that saves a little time later on.

I think I'm going to put some mineral oil on it and maybe some beeswax. I think I'll want something to slow down the drying rate.