Black Walnut slab.
Oakie
Member Posts: 40,510 ✭✭✭✭
I asked my friend that owns a saw mill, to make me a new mantle for one of my rentals. I went yesterday to pick it up and he wasn't around. I gave him a call and he said it was by his garage door. Holy smokes, He left me a 8' long, 3"X24" slab of Black walnut. I called him back and said, Uh, that is way too expensive for a mantel, for you to be giving it to me. I just want something in pine or maple. He laughed and said, naw, cut your mantle out of that piece and just use the rest to make a gun stock or something. I do remember telling him years ago, that if you ever have a piece of black walnut for a gun stock, I would like to buy it. I don't know why I even loaded it onto my trailer. That slab was heavy as all heck. Trust me guys, this piece is going back to him tomorrow. There are just sometimes you can't waste a piece of beautiful wood, and this is one of those times. He makes furniture and stuff. I have an Oak tree that is getting cut down next week. I'm thinking of getting him to cut me a slab out of that. I would feel much better. By the way, this gentleman and I , have been friends since diapers.
Comments
Keep it and make the mantel That is what black walnut is for.
I have several hundred large black walnuts growing on my property. I have made some tables with it, and I have several huge timbers in my log cabin that I made from my black walnut trees. Beautiful.
But, black walnuts produce freaky toxic sap. I spent three months building a vegetable garden, and a nearby black walnut killed every plant in the garden, except for the pole beans. I wacked that tree and burned it in the wood stove.
I had a very nice plank of Black Walnut that I used for this project a few years ago.
I have black walnut floors. Stunning.
Nightshade family and toxins,,,,,,,, horses have been killed when using walnut shavings for bedding , they absorb the toxin through their hooves.
Yep, it’s almost like sterilizing the soil with the ‘drip line’ of walnut trees. And a lot of food we eat contain small amounts of the toxin.
https://hortnews.extension.iastate.edu/2002/6-14-2002/juglone.html
We've got 3 large black walnuts in part of the yard. I really like the looks of them most of the year. However, every other year when we get a bumper crop of nuts and they need to be picked up, I curse those trees up one side and down the other! Also the stems they shed every fall don't want to cooperate too well with my cyclone rake and some have to be raked by hand. As Allen noted, if not raked up the sap will kill what few blades of grass I have left.
Oakie, your good friend obviously intended to do you a real nice favor. Keep the walnut and be thankful for having such a good friend. Don't make him second guess his good intentions, just remember him come birthday or Christmas time. Just my 2¢. Bob
@Oakie This reminds me of your previous comments about trading a work for a rifle. I'm sure you'll remember your friend when he need help.
Good God Brookwood that flintlock is beautiful! What a work of art.
I agree with you Oakie, that's overkill for a rental. The offer is wonderful but yeah,.
Beautiful pictures everyone.
I have a cyclone rake also. Man do they save your back from raking leaves.
So I decided , at my sons advise/idea, to keep the slab, and make my friend a coffee table out of it, for his patio. I only need a small portion for my mantle, which will leave me enough to make him a gift.
25 years ago I went to a near by saw-mill and bought some 8' walnut rough sawn sections. Machined them and made a mantel that really looks great. Gorgeous wood.
“Oakie, your good friend obviously intended to do you a real nice favor. Keep the walnut and be thankful for having such a good friend. Don't make him second guess his good intentions, just remember him come birthday or Christmas time.”
…what Bob said.
Now that'll be cool to do that for him
Get a moisture meter on that slab before you go to whittlin' on it. If it's too moist it'll contort all over the place after you cut/shape it. You want it down around 6-10%.
You see, I knew nothing about that, but my friend did. He kiln dried it and has been sitting for 3 years. He told me I could work away with it. Thank you for letting me know, as if he didn't tell me, I would have screwed it up. This is why I love the forums. We all have a little knowledge to share with each other. It's like Youtube, but with people you trust.
That's good news @Oakie ,
Please post photos of the finished item(s),
Son cut up a short walnut log that was too gnarly for furniture lumber into firewood. I told him it wouldn't burn but he wouldn't listen. That would have made a nice mantle but not much market for that sort of thing around here.
There's a kiln 40 miles away that has thousands upon thousands of board feet of walnut lumber just waiting to be processed.
Allen, I've still got that Black Walnut I picked up from you in 2012... I sealed the ends with tar to keep it from splitting and it's been drying ever since. I probably need to get it slabbed at some point so I can decide what I'm going to do with it.
Absolutely agree with Allen. Wonderful work!
I remember when we cut up that tree. Glad you still have it.
Brookwood, there are not enough superlative adjectives to describe your work. You are a master. That rifle is a masterpiece.
Awww Shucks you guys! (Blushing Red Face) Thanks for all the compliments!