Walnut lumber questions

[Braden Nichols]

I have the opportunity to get some rough cut, air dried Walnut for about $2.50-$3.50 a b.f. It is being sold by a guy who cut down a tree on his property. It has been air dried for about 3 years now and ranges from 3/4 to 8/4 (widths from 6” – 12”)
I have not had the opportunity to go and see it yet (2.5 hr drive) and wanted to get some advice on what I should look for when I go look at it. He has a little of 1,000 b.f and said most is of good quality. I am new to walnut and rough cut lumber so any advice would help. I don’t want to waste money on lumber that won’t be able to be used for furniture and other projects. I have access to a moisture meter if I need it. Thank you.

[Matt Day]

I'm no expert, but you'd probably want to bring a moisture meter to check the wood. A lot of folks recommend bringing a block plane to check out the grain. And of course see how much pith there is and how knotty the wood is, and if the amount of twist or bowed boards there are.

If everything checks out, it sounds like you could have a nice score there.

Good luck!

[Jeff Willard]

Sapwood is usually frowned upon in walnut, and walnuts have a fairly wide band of it. Don't pay a premium for a lot of sapwood.

[Braden Nichols]

What kind range MC should I be looking for in air dried walnut?

[Josiah Bartlett]

As someone who has cut and processed his own walnut, watch out for:
Nails and other things embedded in the tree. They aren't always in the sapwood.
Checks and splits from voids or improper drying
Warps- if you need to machine out a bunch of twisting to get flat boards then the wood isn't worth as much
Sapwood- don't pay anything for sapwood. It isn't dimensionally stable, doesn't stain well, and it isn't pretty.
Knots- Good walnut doesn't contain many, if any knots.

Note that any plank with funky grain is going to relax and warp a bit when you resaw it- plan for this.

A scrub plane and some water will let you check for grain, but if its walnut and its air dried it will be beautiful.

I'm not sure what moisture content you want- I just let mine air dry for long enough that it isn't a problem. Walnut is very heavy when wet and still slightly heavy when dry.

[Barry Vabeach]

Braden, I bought some air dried walnut recently and some of it had powder post beetles - which can be a real problem. If wood is klin dried to 130 degrees, that kills the beetles, since it hasn't been kiln dried, you have that risk with walnut. Look for pin sized holes on the surface ( actually they are the exit holes for the beetles) and look for a very fine wood dust in or near the holes. If you don't have any way of heating the lumber to 130, and it has any infestation, you need to price into this what it would cost to get the lumber heated to kill the infestation. Sorry to be a kill joy, but I spent a lot of effort treating all my lumber since I didn't find the infestation until after the walnut had been stored with some other wood for some time.

[Frank Drew]

I air dried some walnut that got powder post beetles, but only in the sapwood; the heartwood was unaffected.

Braden,

Rough cut 3/4" is a bit thin when you factor in the wood that will be lost in processing; if it's closer to a full inch, though, then it would be fine. You don't have to take the entire stash, do you?

[Ellen Benkin]

Grab whatever you can that looks good. It seems that it is very hard to find decent walnut these days.

[Braden Nichols]

No I dont have to take it all. I'm planning on picking through the stacks. I'm more interested in the 8/4.

[Josh Rudolph]

Braden,

Are you buying this stuff for a specific upcoming project? If not, I wouldn't worry about the moisture meter until later.

If you want to use it in the next couple weeks you may want to look into one. You can do a search on the forum and find out a lot of good info.

When looking at the wood, before you do anything see if it was stacked properly. If it wasn't stickered, you may have a wasted trip. Where has this stuff been sitting and air drying the past 3 years? If it was in a well ventilated area that can get a cross breeze and stickered correctly, then it could all be dry enough for use (after it acclimates to your shop).

Pass on the 3/4 stuff. I know I have eneded up with some 4/4 that I tried to squeak out .75" without success. Unless it is gorgeous stuff I am trying to stick with 5/4 or better these days. I can always resaw it down to thickness.

How do you like to finish your projects. If you are a dye and stain guy, you can actually blend the sap pretty well. If you are a natural color finisher, then sap wood could be a problem.

Hope some that helps.
Good luck with purchase.

Josh

[Chip Lindley]

Never Say Never, but I have not yet encountered powder post beetles in walnut heartwood. They LUV the sapwood tho. If a standing walnut were dead several years before being sawn into lumber, the larvae may then be in heartwood also.

Air-dried black walnut has a character all it's own. Most, when kiln-dried is also steamed, so as to even out the color between heart- and sapwood. More yield that way! But, the color suffers; lighter and more bland with less of the natural highlights in the wood.

If you can pick your boards, you will have a real nice stash, at a really decent price!

[Josiah Bartlett]

I'd be more worried about the powder post beetles infecting the other woods in your shop than affecting the walnut. I've only ever seen them in the bark and sapwood of walnut but you don't want them infecting woods that they find more palatable in your shop.

[Roger Benton]

What kind range MC should I be looking for in air dried walnut?

I believe once properly air dried it should read about 12%, hopefully less. Air dried stuff gets down to 8% or less.

Just found this, scroll down a few pages and there's a chart showing MC for different areas, the paragraphs prior to the chart talk about MC when air/kiln drying:

http://www.hornerflooring.com/techgu...urecontent.pdf

I would definitely make the drive to check it out if the seller was telling me the 8/4 stuff is flat and in good shape. I once drove 3.5 hours to pick up a 350 bf load of air dried (8 years) walnut for a song, all 4/4, sight unseen, no project planned, just to have a stash when I needed it. Turned out to be beautiful.

good luck-

[Irvin Cooper]

I have bought rough-sawn, air-dried walnut several times now. You may be buying 1k bd feet, but unless it was really REALLY dried well, you can probably count on a much higher than normal waste ratio: I would guess between 30-40%.

I would be one to go get it also, whether I had a project in mind for it or not, BUT, I certainly would not pay full price for the full 1000 bd ft if there is much waste.

Just my thoughts.

Irv

[Mike Cruz]

Braden, about sapwood. Really, it depends on what you are using the wood for. True, sapwood is not as stable as heartwood, but I have seen some awsome pieces made that intentionally used sapwood for contrast. (Using it in a glue up is a definate no-no...and ugly.) Here is a pic of a simple unit I built to store wood next to the woodstove in my old house. It was made of what would be considered scrap because of he sapwood. Yes, this is Cherry, not Walnut, but you get the idea. Also, I kinda liked the idea that it looked like flames...next to the woodstove.

NOTE: I have to say that while I said that sapwood in a glue up is a no-no, yes I used it in the glue up on the side panels and top, but it was to contiue the effect, and all peices that were being glued up had sapwood, so the joints did not jump out at you...

Also, this unit doubled as a stand for the TV, so,yes that is a cable outlet on the inside. Hmmm, I know there was a power outlet around there somewhere, too. That is why there is an extension cord...for the woodstove blower...and the TV had to plug into something...