black walnut

[cyco]

hi i'm after some information on black walnut, like is it only the heart wood that is any good how stable is it, anything that might help as i have come across some logs(a few hundred) but most have been sold and would like to mill them up to make something for my parents.

also is the root bole any good for anything as they also have heaps of them.

thanks in advance and i'll try to get some photo's of a piece he was given from some one that milled a few logs up to try.

Simon

[reeves]

mmm where bouts is this black walnut you tal;k of several logs and root balls ?

sounds interesting....;;;;-)

i have a little of it and yeah its great, nice and dark, fairly light and strong, probably a touch gnarly but should be useful for the useual things...

[lbgking]

Is it American Walnut or QLD?

[Clinton1]

if it is Juglans Nigra American Black Walnut, it is a spectacular looking timber, and I hope the logs are large enough to get some good boards out of.
I've never heard of using the bole, however that means little. Take a look on the sawmill creek forum (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/) and go into the timber section. They go off over it over in the US and you'll find a bit of info.

If you do end up with boards... I'll be harassing you to buy some. :U

[R.B.]

what little walnut has passed through my workshop has always been a pleasure. responds to a plane well and can be stunning. I did have a couple of chunks of american walnut that ended up on the lathe "luverly"
grab very bit you can. if you can clean the root balls enough to but a blade through them you'll find some crazy figure.

be sure to show us some pics of your black walnut when you get it.

[Des.K.]

I'll second, third and fourth all the comments about black walnut. Made a coffee table with American black walnut a couple of years back, and it was an absolute pleasure to work with. Well behaved with handplanes, and rock solid.

The only negative to it is that here it costs a fortune, And I think the quality we get may only be fairly average; only heard this about third hand, but if so, I'd love to get hold of some of the really good stuff.

Des

[powderpost]

If you are talking about Queensland black walnut, I have used a fair bit of it. It is a very nice timber to work. Easy to glue and work with hand tools. But, it has a high silica content and will take the edge off power tools very quickly.
Jim

[cyco]

thanks everyone sounds like it should be some good buying at $20 a log, logs are between 400 to 1metre in diameter give or take and around 6 to 10 metres in length some are pretty knarly though. their from a failed walnut grove that got some kind of disease and its the american variety.

is it only the heart wood thats good or is the sap wood ok to work with too?

thanks again i'll prob get pic's next week as i'm going to the timber woodworking show this weekend

simon

[Greg Ward]

While you at the show, call on Mal at Boutique timbers, he may be interested to work with you to purchase and process the logs.
Regards
Greg

[bsrlee]

The root area is also much sought after in the US for gun stock making, due to the confused grain it makes some spectacular stuff. The other big use is as quarter sawn veneer - if you have the gear to mill it.

The sap wood comes out a different colour to the heartwood, and it is preferable to avoid having both in the same piece. Having said that, careful planning can put any sapwood on the 'inside' where it can't be seen and some say you can stain it to blend in.

A good find - you can always make me a present of a couple of cubic meters of sawn stock :U:U:U:U

[ctimber]

Its called American Walbut... try to go C&G Timber Flooring they provide good solid timber.