Some advice on saving some trees...cont'd

[Homelite]

Some of you may remember a couple of months ago I wrote requesting advice on saving some walnut logs from a construction site. All told, I was able to save (5) 16-22 inch diameter logs averaging 7 feet in length and one crotch piece. Well....the logs have been milled using my MS390 and 24 inch mill (pictures of that work to follow) and the crotch was milled by a local mill (less than a mile from my house) on a WoodMizer to reduce waste, not to mention my mill can't handle the 32 inch width at the fork. I feel as though I got a good deal considering that the wood cost gas and a few hours of time to get after work. It cost $50 for almost an hour of milling and handling the log. I was able to get 6-7 slabs at 7/4. Anyway, here are a few pics to get you drooling.

 

[Marmaduck]

Color me green with envy...

That is some pretty wood!

Congrats!

 

[stonykill]

very nice! Its always good to save trees from being buried, ground up or burnt. Walnut is so beautiful. Great job!

 

[BobL]

Wicked!!

 

[Sprig]

Wow!

Awesome! Walnut is a beautiful looking wood and those pieces are gorgeous! Kudos for saving this from being wasted





Serge


Wee edit:
(Ooo, anyone up to reformatting and imbeding the pics? Just curious if its possible, Acrobat is not a great one for some)

 

[woodshop]

Beautiful walnut crotch figure. Hope those minor bark inclusions I saw don't open up on ya when drying. Crotch figure is always a crap shoot drying it. I'd dry it as slow as you can, especially in the beginning.

 

[Homelite]

The inclusions are limited to only two pieces, so hopefully it won't be too bad. I will be covering them with some tin once I get them stickered and putting them in the woods out of sunlight. I was also toying with the idea of getting them kiln dried at a local kiln/mill. Any ideas? I would rather get them kiln dried because of the controlled environment, but haven't dried any crotch to date. Any suggestions (and I'm sure there will be a few) would be appreciated.

 

[Sprig]

I think kiln drying would be one of the best options, also this has been discussed in several spots here too, any other way requires very slow controlled environment with minimal moisture/temp variations, could be talking years depending on how moist you're starting with. I have several friends over the years that have used sawdust or sand (I think sand might be trouble though, dunno) packing in cool dry place. Much more experience around than me and I'm curious too and await other answers.



Serge

 

[MikeInParadise]

(Ooo, anyone up to reformatting and imbeding the pics? Just curious if its possible, Acrobat is not a great one for some)

Here they are..

 

[woodshop]

Well... I don't think it would take years... but yes the slower it dried the better. I successfully dried a stack of walnut crotch 14 inches wide by air drying it slowly and keeping it under pressure so it wouldn't twist up. I clamped the whole stack between some threaded rod and kept tightening the stack every month or so for about a year. It only took that long to get down to about 15% MC from wet timber. They were 6/4.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Nice stuff. I'm glad it worked out for you.

 

[irishcountry]

Walnut

Very nice looking grain. A friend of mine just informed me of a similar situation at a construction site he's been on its old walnuts that were cut down a couple of months ago he said originally the University wanted them but they are still on the ground in the same place they were so he is going to ask around to see if they may be up for grabs and he will get back to me it would be a waste to see them rot!! Great job!!