Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: speaking of black walnut

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflondon@mindspring.com>
  • To: permaculture
  • Subject: Re: speaking of black walnut
  • Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2000 21:42:17 -0400


On Wed, 5 Apr 2000 21:22:43 EDT, Lucia84ad@aol.com wrote:

>An old black walnut was toppled a couple years back by one of our big
>hurricanes. (I live along coastal North Carolina in the US). It has been cut
>in several large pieces. I would like to save the wood, as furniture of some
>sort, because of sentimental reasons & because of the beauty of the wood
>itself. I've heard that it's a very hard wood, difficult to cut. Does anyone
>have any suggestions on how to use this wood? I hate to see it go to waste
>or
>into a bon fire. Thanks!
>Kimberly

By all means save it, saw it up and use it. Its not that hard and any
small-scale (or larger) bandsaww mill can make planks out of it for
you. I'd advise going for quarter-sawn and random width planks,
all 1" or better in thickness up to 5/4 (about 1 1/8' to 1 1/4").

I bought a dump truck load (for $600) of locally grown, locally sawed
Fran-toppled walnut from a farmer neighbor. It is beautiful wood
with all sorts of nice irregularities in the grain, swirls and knots
that make it stand out from the ordinary straight plain-grained
walnut that cabinet shops get from their suppliers. It is a rarity
and highly prized by nearly all furniture makers - it may be a bit
unstable as far as the possibility of minor cracking and shrinkage is
concerned but not necessarily so. I made a beautiful coffee table with
some and it is quite stable - no warping or cracking so far.

Go for it.

Lawrence



Lawrence F. London, Jr. Venaura Farm ICQ#27930345
lflondon@mindspring.com london@metalab.unc.edu
metalab.unc.edu/intergarden InterGarden
metalab.unc.edu/permaculture PermaSphere
metalab.unc.edu/intergarden/orgfarm AGINFO




  • Re: speaking of black walnut, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 04/05/2000

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page