black walnut

[pointsnorth]

I recentley cut down a black walnut tree. Can I mill it now or should I wait. Do I have to do anything to the tree itself to prevent cracking and splitting of the lumber?

 

[Bryan Hosford]

always better to cut it up sooner and sticker it, but if not just paint the ends with anchorseal, parrifin wax, for latex paint - that will help it not check.

 

[pastryguyhawaii]

Could you post some pics of that when you get it milled? I'd like to see what it looks like.

 

[dustytools]

I have heard claims that if you let it set for a while with the ends sealed that the sapwood will eventually darken to the color of the heartwood.

 

[Mike Van]

I've never seen the sapwood get darker on walnut. And yes, mill it up, sooner the better. The wetter the log, the easier it mills, less chance of bugs moving in too.

 

[Can8ianTimber]

I've never seen the sapwood get darker on walnut.

If you let it air dry or just dry really slow it gets darker, at least here on the leftcoast.

 

[petersenj20]

Kiln drying can make the sapwood turn dark. Air drying will not unless there is some trick my wood and I do not know.

 

[woodshop]

I've never seen the sapwood get darker on walnut. And yes, mill it up, sooner the better. The wetter the log, the easier it mills, less chance of bugs moving in too.

ditto

 

[Can8ianTimber]

Kiln drying can make the sapwood turn dark. Air drying will not unless there is some trick my wood and I do not know.

It is not kiln drying that makes the sapwood turn it is steaming that they do at the end of the kiln cycle. simply removing water from wood does not turn sapwood.

Deffinitly mill right away though. Leaving in log for will result in end checks.

 

[indiansprings]

Deffinitly mill right away though. Leaving in log for will result in end checks.


Great info, I didn't seal the end of several good logs and they checked on the ends, and did it fairly quickly. Walnut,Wild Cherry and Persimmon seems like walnut did it first.

 

[Backwoods]

I have to disagree, yes milling it right away will minimize checking, however if you want the sap wood to darken, seal up the ends and dump the logs in a blackberry on some blocks to keep it off the ground and forget about them for a couple of years. The berry patch will shade and the logs and keep them humid in the summer, in the winter they will get mild sunshine and as the logs dry the color will bleed into the sapwood. The process is about the same a spalting a log. Not long enough and you get pore results, to long and the log can go bad as in bugs getting to it.
I had a tree that was 36” DBH and after milling one of the smaller logs I confirmed that it was a ¾ sap wood with a small center of dark wood. Not having the time to mess with it then I tucked it to the side as I described. When I pulled it out of the berry patch and milled it up about 2 ½ years later, the sap wood had darkened nicely and was not the blasé brown of kiln dried wood, the grain of the wood had pulled in several tones of color.
The left coast Huh? I am not so sure I like the implication that the other coast would be the right coast. :sword:

 

[lumberinspector]

Cut it up ASAP.

Get it on sticks out of the sun and rain.

We steam all of our Walnut and the steaming occurs before it goes to the kiln.

We bought some Walnut from another mill and re-graded it yesterday.

It was a good example of why lumber should be put on sticks and kept in a cool dry place.

Some of the lumber had black mold,others were stained etc. If your thickness isn't 1 1/8", you leave yourself little room to clean it up with the planer if stain etc. does occur.