Walnut...?

[Doug Rasmussen]

In a recent thread there was a comment about turning walnut. I didn't pay much attention, but it seemed the poster was saying something about problems or undesirable aspects of turning walnut. Maybe about allergies to walnut saw dust?

I was given quite a quantity of walnut that looks like it may have been sawed up for turning blanks since it's way too long for a fireplace. The stuff is bone dry, so dry that when I chipped off a piece it didn't have characteristic smell of walnut. When I got it home sawing off a piece there was the familiar smell of walnut.

The puzzle is it seems realluy hard. In the past I've had walnut that was relatively soft, but a 5" thick piece was hard to push through the bandsaw to crosscut. I suppose there might be different varieties of walnut.

Any thoughts?

[John Keeton]

Apparently 25% of the population is allergic to American Black Walnut. Creeker and good friend Robert Henrickson is one of them. I don't know if Claro Walnut causes the same reactions.

I have turned a lot of walnut and built a lot of furniture with it. It would be unusual if it was difficult to crosscut with a bandsaw and a sharp blade.

[Reed Gray]

I don't turn it any more because it makes me kind of itchy and sneezy. Even dry, it shouldn't be difficult to cut. I have found it to dull the tools more quickly than most other woods, and it seems to be a bit more of a problem when green, which I figured may be because the wood and sap/water is rather acidic. I would suspect your blade is dull.

robo hippy

[Tony Rozendaal]

My experience with walnut us that it can vary a lot in hardness - I've turned some that was from a house that was built over 100 years ago and it was fairly soft, and that is what I have come to expect. However, a friend gave me some green limb wood from a tree last fall, and it was quite hard. I have occasionally found a piece that is really quite hard. MOST of what I have turned is fairly soft, somewhat like silver maple or slightly harder.

[John K Jordan]

My experience with walnut us that it can vary a lot in hardness - I've turned some that was from a house that was built over 100 years ago and it was fairly soft, and that is what I have come to expect. However, a friend gave me some green limb wood from a tree last fall, and it was quite hard. I have occasionally found a piece that is really quite hard. MOST of what I have turned is fairly soft, somewhat like silver maple or slightly harder.

I've also had walnut soft and hard. It almost seems that the older the walnut is, the harder it was. I was given a walnut mantel about 3" thick with the claim that it was about 100 years old. That stuff wore out a new Starrett bimetal bandsaw blade in maybe 2' of cuts! I still have the rest of the slab if anyone else wants to dull their tools!

Newly cut wood always seems soft. But maybe it is just the differences in the specific tree, where it grew, etc.

JKJ

[Bob Bergstrom]

I've had walnut turn like butter and some that must have had a lot of silica in it. Dulled my D-Way gouge too quickly. Most has been a pleasure to turn.

[Doug Rasmussen]

Thanks guys for the info. Allergies to walnut..., I think I can say I don't have that since I've done a fair amount of millwork with walnut and no noticeable problems.

Here's a link to hardness comparison of woods:

http://www.workshoppages.com/ws/misc/wood-hardness-chart.pdf

For lack of a better way to determine relative hardness I took a know sample of sapele, rated 1500 on the chart, and used an automatic center punch to indent into end grain. Did the same on the sawn sample of my newly acquired walnut. Using a magnifying loupe with graduations the indentation in the walnut is slightly smaller than that in sapele. Not a perfectly scientific method, it does lead me to believe this walnut is above 1500 in harness.

Per the chart domestic black walnut is 1050. As Tony and John say, they've had hard walnut. It did seem the one particular piece I cut was heavier than a couple other almost equivalent sized pieces. I have no way of knowing if it all came from the same tree. Or, possibly hardness might differ throughout a tree.

[John Landis]

Walnut shavings/sawdust is toxic to some animals, especially horses, so should not be used for bedding,etc. It should also not be used in the garden, as it inhibits growth of many plants.

[Doug Rasmussen]

Walnut shavings/sawdust is toxic to some animals, especially horses, so should not be used for bedding,etc. It should also not be used in the garden, as it inhibits growth of many plants.

John, that is good to know, I would used the shavings for garden mulch. Thanks.