Hi all,
Been reading for months, and thought I would join in with a question. I recently bought a house on one acre in the middle of some walnut orchards here in Cali. I have 25 walnut trees but I am going to eliminate about 15 of them. Any ideas as to what I should do concerning the wood? Firewood is part of the option, but I have these 2 foot diameter, by 6-8 foot tall trunks that I know are gonna look great. At about the 3-4 foot mark is the splice where it goes from English Walnut to Black Walnut. Thoughts?
Replies
You may not have enough to hire a consultant, but I was reading some tips regarding that subject last night at this site, and there may be some help for you there.
http://www.woodweb.com/KnowledgeBase/KBForestryTimberHarvesting.html
There is also a site for finding a sawyer here.
http://www.woodweb.com/Resources/RSSDG.html
Even if some of your trees are not suitable for saw-logs you should try to find a good turner to utilize the splice line of any cull or marginal trees.
Your state Forestry Commission might be worth contacting also.
Rasko,
Where in California?
Here in San Diego, Palomar College's Cabinet & Furniture Technology department operates a bandsaw mill and kiln in cooperation with the State of California's Department of Forestry, the objective of which is to divert harvestable trees from landfills and turn them into workable lumber.
http://www.Palomar.edu/woodworking
You might try contacting the dept. of forestry to see if there's a comparable program in your area - I understand our urban forestry program is part of a statewide initiative.
Good luck,
-Jazzdogg-
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Gil Bailie
Jazz,
I am up north of Sacramento. Small town called Rio Oso, next door to Wheatland. I am in the middle of thousands, upon thousands of walnut and almond trees. I just happened to be able to buy this one acre. From the sounds of the replies so far, sounds like the D.O.F. is the first route. I did find a local sawyer and will call him as well. I would love to be able to turn these trunks or something!
WOW...
If it were me I would SAVE that wood somehow!..
I'd bet you could at least recover your costs to cut it...
Long ago I had a very large Black Walnut tree that was split by lightning... Chicago street tree.. I had to take it down.. NOBODY would cut it for me... DANG!
Will, Things have changed. There are lots of people around with band-mills now. I demonstrated mine to the Urban Forester about a month ago. He called me this morning to tell me that his just came in.Big commercial mills don't want the down time if they hit stuff with their blades, but it is really no big deal with these smaller mill. Check this link out for a good example of what you can get. I pay less than ten bucks to have a blade sharpened. He was out fifty but what is the lumber worth?
http://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/forums/sawdry.pl?read=423342
http://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/forums/sawdry.pl?read=423422
We've bought firewood from a man named curtis something or other up in your area - in Colusa, I think. His main business was cutting gunstock blanks from walnut and selling them overseas, mainly to Drilling in Germany (spelling?). The most expensive blanks he sold were the blanks with the graft union in the middle - black walnut on the bottom, english on the top, and a wavy interface between. Each of these blanks sold for up to $5000!!
The walnut you cut will air dry to a wood that the commercial sellers can't even dream of with purple, blue, and red highlights in rich brown matrix.
The straight vertical sections of tree can be cut into lumber, but short pieces since nut trees are pruned to be low and very branched. The horizontal sections and heavily curved sections will be reaction wood and should only be used for veneer or turning. These stressed sections often have dramatic tiger stripes and make beautiful bookmatched veneers.
The english walnut fruiting wood (above the graft) is "walnut light". It's like the black walnut in texture and grain and just as wonderful to work, but is lighter brown with more streaking. It's also quite beautiful.
Go slowly and explore what you've got. Don't cut a tree until you're ready to deal with the wood. Coat the ends with green wood sealter within a minute or two of cutting the tree and split round sections in half longitudinally to relieve tangential stresses. The unusable wood from the branches and other waste pieces is great mellow firewood; I can tell from the smoke that someone is burning walnut!
And, if you can't use all that walnut, give me a call. I'd be glad to help!
Edited 8/17/2005 1:18 am ET by Telemike
Go slowly and explore what you've got. Don't cut a tree until you're ready to deal with the wood..I AGREE!Rasco.. Maybe a local 'nut' grower can tell you what trees should be 'cut' OR saved'
Walnut can be converted into useable furniture timber down to quite small dimensions. I've been dealing with some pieces that were cut up for firewood and have recovered bundles of short boards that will make small boxes and cases - converted on my 14 inch bandsaw.
Depends on your interests, your skills, and your local users demand!
Try not tyo waste any
good luck!
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