Walnut logs to be cut into boards

[Jay]

A guy I work with is a Landscaper on the side. He found some large black walnut trees that had been cut down by a road crew and taken to one of the crews field. A friend of mine and I got these logs and his Father-in-Law has a bandsaw mill. He is going to slab them up for us, howerver, he has never done any walnut and has some questions about it. First, he heard somewhere that you should let walnut sit for a while (2 years for the size logs we got) before running them through the mill. Second, he was wanting to plain saw the whole lot, but I think quarter sawn would be better. Your opinions mater so, please let me know. Thanks.

[Lawrence A. Ramsey]

[Al Reid]

Do some plain and some quartered. Your yield will be higher plain sawn.

-- Al Reid

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." --- Mark Twain

[Jon Endres, PE]

Cut it immediately, or you wil lose a lot of it to checking and rot, especially in two years. If it were my logs, they'd be plainsawn to get the most figure from the wood. Quarter works well if you have one or more of the following:

- remarkable figure that can only be seen as quartersawn wood (i.e. oak, sycamore)

- you need stability for a large surface area, or don't care about grain

- you have really large logs that you can't mill conventionally

I have a large ash tree that I'm going to quarter, and I would try to quarter most any oak, beech or similar unstable wood that came along, but everything else would be flatsawn.

Jon E

[Charlie Self]

Jay asks:

Saw them now. Sticker and stack for a couple years to season.

Quartersawn is nice, but not necessary with walnut. If you can talk him into it, you'll like most of the results, but you'll get about 20-30% less wood per log that way.

Charlie Self "Telephone, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance." Ambrose Bierce

[Phisherman]

Cut them into boards now, sticker them to begin the drying process and prevent rot. QS is fine, but you'll lose wood.

[john moorhead]

Jay -

I had a standing dead tree cut down several years ago and I had it milled out about 3 years ago. I had the log flat sawn and it was GORGEOUS! I'd do some both ways, but the MOST important part is to get it well stickered for proper drying. I'm not sure how much wood you'll end up with, but having a solid foundation beneath the lumber will go a long way in keeping the boards straight as they dry.

You will be VERY happy with your find sooner than you think!

John Moorhead