Fresh Walnut on the ground

[Terry Achey]

I had two walnut trees and a maple taken down today by a tree service. I asked them to save the big pieces. Larger walnut was probably 80' high and has a 24" base. Got really tired of messing with tons of walnuts and the oodles of long wirey leaf stems they leave behind each fall. The maple was dying off at the crown and has a base of about 22".

Anywho, I took advice from the Sawmill panel of experts and contacted Woodmizer for a local sawyer and they gave me four locals. Have a guy coming Friday to take a look. There's more board feet here then I'll probably use but I don't want any to go to waste. In addition to sawing boards, I'm going to carve quite a bit for bowl work. Someone mentioned that the crotches can be very nice to turn. Anyone have advice on how to cut the crotch stock for bowl turing? (see photo). Also, any other tips on cuttng boards sizes besides 1 by's? Perhaps some thickerboard stock?

More lumber here than I thougth! These logs are about 11' long. :eek:

[Jim Kountz]

Sorry Terry but none of that would will be any good. You'd better let me come get it from you and save you some trouble!:D:D:D:D

[George Morris]

Terry where are you in PA? Do you need me to store some of that for you? Good haul!! George

[Chuck Jones]

Terry,
This afternoon I finished stickering and stacking the sawed results of 12 black walnut logs. (One small gloat: I got the logs for free). I have a wood-mizer and quite a lot of experience sawing flatstock. But I'm relatively new at woodturning. I can tell you what I did, but that doesn't mean to imply that I know much about the best way to do it.

First of all I sealed all ends with anchorseal. A few of the logs were inferior quality for flat stock so I sawed them almost entirely into thick cants for later cutting down to turning blocks. I took a thin slab off to get rid of most of the bark and to make it easier to mark and band saw blanks later. I cut the cants 3" to 6" thick. I left almost all of the cants full length and stacked them with stickers to prevent rot. I cut a couple cants up into turning block lengths. I sealed the ends of all of the blocks with either anchorseal or wax.

Flatstock is usually cut to "grade" thickness which is 1 1/8". On the better quality logs I cut several cants in multiples of 1 1/8" (plus the 1/8" kerfs), i.e., 2 1/2", 3 3/4", 5", etc. That way if I don't need them for turning I can put them back on the mill and turn 1" stock later.

There is one thing you definitely need when you cut logs into these size cants: a strong back and an assistant with a strong back. Green walnut is heavy!

Keep the number of cant thicknesses to a minimum or you'll have a hard time stacking them. Get the sawyer to cut some stickers (that's what they call the stacking strips) because the wood needs some air space. I get mine by saving the edge trimmings from the 1" flitches (boards with bark). It's best to make a few extra passes on walnut anyway because most woodworkers don't want the sap wood left on.

I have the same questions you have on best way to approach the crotches. The few that I had I just took a thin slab off two sides (with the crotch flat) to make it a little easier to work with later.

Hope there is something in this rambling that's helpful.

Chuck Jones

[Reed Gray]

I would recomend for flat work boards, cut a lot of fat 4/4, and some fat 8/4 boards. Too many times I have seen people cut the tree up into all 4/4 boards. What am I going to make table legs out of? Oh, we didn't think of that! You can glue it up, but solid stock is better. Nice wood haul.
robo hippy

[Terry Quiram]

Terry

To cut the crotch for turning stock you need to turn it 90 degrees from the direction shown in the picture. Cut straight down the pith. The middle of the log will be the bottom of the bowl. You should cut the "Y" fingers off before you start.

[Matt Hutchinson]

I agree with Terry, except I would add that I usually cut to either side of the pith. You will leave a 1.5"+ thick 'Y' shaped slab, but you don't want any pith cracks left in the blank.

Hutch

[robert hainstock]

If you want flat stock, have it cut 4/4 so there will be enough stock toplane. bowl blanks have 6" to twelve" or more slabs. And know that the best wood for turning is still in the stump. Good luck.:)
Bob

[Terry Achey]

Thanks guys for all the pointers. It's all helpful. I printed the responses as a reference.

Bob, the stumps are cut very near to graded. Are you saying the stump wood below grade is valued? That's gotta be tough to harvest. I foresee alot of dull chain saw blades in my future if that's the case :(

Thanks again for sharing the knowledge!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Terry - congrats on your wood score! No matter how you plan to cut it - make sure you seal everything.

Bob mentioned checking out the stump - it's worth taking a look as you can have grain going every which way and that can make for some great turnings! Have fun - be safe!

Looking forward to seeing some walnut turnings real soon!

[Reed Gray]

Reaction wood (what we call figured) is caused by stress. The fiber does an accordian type of thing to allow movement without breakage. The lower on the tree you go, the more stress there is. The bottom section of the tree generally has the best figure.
robo hippy

[Terry Achey]

Terry - congrats on your wood score! No matter how you plan to cut it - make sure you seal everything.

Bob mentioned checking out the stump - it's worth taking a look as you can have grain going every which way and that can make for some great turnings! Have fun - be safe!

Looking forward to seeing some walnut turnings real soon!


Thanks, Steve. I'm looking forward to turning, too. But, I don't know about real soon! Besides working late most days I'm putting a sewer connection to the house right now (manadatory w/$6k tap fee:mad:); making arrangements for sawing and stacking alot of walnut and maple; installing 11 replacement windows;....and then the summer is also chocked full of baseball games for our five Grandsons! The boys are a pleasure to watch play (ages 7 to 15)but it sure is a time consuming activity. Seems I actually have more time for the shop in the dead of winter.

Take care and look forward to seeing more of your inspiring turnings. I'd like to tackle some HF's some day, but I'm still as green as the wood I'm turning on regular bowls at this point!

[curtis rosche]

i had a maple crotch that i cut down the middle of the crotch so that i had a peice about 4 inches thick.


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