walnut crotch as good as it gets

[woodshop]

Just got back from milling a 26" walnut log that had blown down in yard. Got about 175 bd ft the first trip, and tonight about 150 more. It had a lot of sapwood, so by the time I got down to the brown walnut heartwood half the log had been milled away. Anyway... not complaining, because once in a while you get lucky, and this thing had a promising looking crotch section. My experience in the past has been that they are a crap shoot... sometimes you get some nice solid stuff, sometimes there is bark inclusions and the figure only stretches for maybe a foot or more even though it looks like it should be longer from the outside. When I opened up this crotch section I couldn't believe how pretty it was... about as good as it gets. The figure goes for over 36 inches and is about 9 inches wide and somewhat uniform in width. I milled it 5/4, and of the 8 13" wide boards I got from it I'd say 5 of them are as pretty like this one pic below. I just ran this one board through the planer to clean up the bandsaw mill marks and see how pretty it was. Imagine when this has been dried, S4S and a coat of oil brings out the figure. Only problem is special boards like these I tend to not use because I'm waiting for that "special" project somewhere in the future that can really show something like this off.

 

[Trigger-Time]

That, is NICCCCE!



Gary

 

[Adkpk]

She is a beauty.

 

[Marklambert61]

great boards for table

Wow that would make a great top for a table sweet stuff...

Mark

 

[dustytools]

That is some sweet looking Walnut there Woodshop!!!

 

[Leroy in Kansas]

O'man, I see a grandfather clock in that one. sure looks nice, I'll trade for welding anytime.. Leroy

 

[irishcountry]

Awesome!! Is that just flatsawn im assuming yes. I have a friend who's father and law has a large blowdown walnut we are just trying to get schedules to line up the next couple weekends now i'm really looking forward to it!! Nice stuff

 

[peterrum]

Very nice, if you want to trade for some ponderosa pine just let me know How long do you think it will take to air dry those boards.

 

[woodshop]

Awesome!! Is that just flatsawn im assuming yes. I have a friend who's father and law has a large blowdown walnut we are just trying to get schedules to line up the next couple weekends now i'm really looking forward to it!! Nice stuff

Orientation milling a crotch... I have found that although you can get figured wood any way you slice the crotch, the best stuff, and the way this was milled, is milling the same plane as the Y so to speak. In other words, think of the crotch as a letter Y with the main stem and the two branches going out at say 45 degrees from the stem, and lay that Y flat, down on the ground... mill that Y just as it lays, parallel to the ground, right through that crotch area where the branches start to leave the main stem. I cut off the branches going out to the sides to the width of my boards, and then mill that stem as it lays. Next time I mill a crotch I'll take pics to clarify in case anybody doesn't get my convoluted explanation.

 

[woodshop]

Very nice, if you want to trade for some ponderosa pine just let me know How long do you think it will take to air dry those boards.

This time of the year, my 5/4 walnut is usually down to 15-20%MC in 3-4 months and I usually let it sit there a bit longer if I don't need the room right away. Crotch though, sometimes takes either shorter period or longer... I guess that grain going every which way throws a wrench in the fan making it hard to predict. Also... crotch sometimes cracks and develops open fissures as it dries. Again.. that wild grain probably drying too fast for the surrounding wood I figure. So I try and take more care to dry it SLOW to prevent that. On premium stuff like this, I'm going to go out of my way to dry it as slow as I can. I don't care if it take 2 years. As I said, I'm in no hurry to cut up these boards. That grandfather clock suggestion so far sounds like a winner. Maybe one made with all wooden gears also?

 

[Backwood]

Very nice. If your computer starts smoking it might be from me drooling on the screen
I hope you get it dried in one piece. What are you planing on doing to slow the drying ?

 

[woodshop]

Very nice. If your computer starts smoking it might be from me drooling on the screen
I hope you get it dried in one piece. What are you planing on doing to slow the drying ?

location location location... seal the ends, sticker it and pin the pile between couple 2x4 frames and tighten that together with all-thread, then put it out of the wind or sun, allowing only enough air so it doesn't start to mildew and mold on me. I did that to a similar walnut crotch several years ago with very good results. I had to keep tightening the all-thread in the beginning, but then it kinda stabilized size wise and just kept slowly drying. Took over a year.

 

[Zodiac45]

Wow , beauty of a piece Woodshop! Absolutely gorgeous.

 

[Leroy in Kansas]

"That grandfather clock suggestion so far sounds like a winner. Maybe one made with all wooden gears also?"

Woodshop, We will want to see the pic's of cutting the gears on the Shop Bot. As well as a technical explination. Leroy

 

[slabmaster]

Looks Nice! Hopefully it wont crack on you.I've had some that started and i injected epoxy in the crack which stopped it.So i keep an eye on those for that reason so i can inject them right away to stop further cracking.Mark

 

[BobL]

She's a stunner alright. If you listen to a piece like that every now and then eventually it will tell you what it wants to be!

 

[Trigger-Time]

She's a stunner alright. If you listen to a piece like that every now and then eventually it will tell you what it wants to be!

Board Whisperer

 

[woodshop]

She's a stunner alright. If you listen to a piece like that every now and then eventually it will tell you what it wants to be!

...at this point these boards are all saying "dry me slow, dry me slow..."

 

[curdy]

Crap, please tell me that's not the walnut I passed on...

 

[Dai Sensei]

You have certainly got some beautiful timber there :jawdrop: