Two questions about raw walnut wood

[Toller]

1) To make the wood more manageable, I split off all the sapwood before taking it to the bandsaw. Some of it is in nice little rectangles that wouldn't be much trouble to cut up. They would be small and require gluing to get anything useable. Is it worthwhile; is the sapwood any good? If not, does it make good firewood; does it rot quickly or is it stable? I have all the firewood I need for a few years, but I don't like the idea of it going in a landfill.

2) Several of the pieces I cut are quartersawn, and are quite pretty. I have never seen QS walnut at retail. Is there a reason for that?

[Scott Lurndal]

Primary diff between sapwood and heartwood is color. Commercial walnut is steamed to blend the heart and sapwoods.

It's available retail. Bought some recently at Jackel in Watsonville.

scott

[fredfighter]

It is good wood. If you don't stain it, use linsed oil on it, or use any other finish that darkens with age it will get lighter with age.

So you might consider using for something like a chessboard or chess pieces, knobs, candlesticks or what not.

[Toller]

Well, I cut up about 10bf of it; the rest was too narrow. We will see what it looks like in a year. Thanks.