I recently harvested two walnut trees from a lot that was being cleared and got the stumps after they were dug out. I have always heard that stumps contain beautiful burl – is this true? If so, do you need to take any special precautions when drying the lumber to keep the wood from checking and cracking? Any tips on sawing these? The largest was approximately 24″ dia. at ground level, the other about 18″.
Thank you
Doug
Replies
How long are the pieces?
The pieces are about 3' to 4' long.
Doug
I'm thinking that it will take an awful long time to dry these in total stump format. But if you do need to keep them for awhile that way, you certainly should at least melt some parrafin and coat the ends really well.
I would be tempted to take a really sharp chain saw and rip down the middle of these stumps to see what you've got. You can get rip chains that will do this a bit faster. Once you've got them in manageable chunks, go after them with a big band saw or big resaw machine.
Then it's just normal air-drying technique, stickered outside covered from top and open at sides....hope you've got some nice burl. At the very least you'll have some nice fragrant firewood.
I have some walnut stump veneer. It is like a cross between sap and heart wood that is kind of swirled together. Kind of cool looking but definitely not burl. Much lighter in color than burl. I have attached a couple of photos to show the difference.
J.P.
Just finished veneering some drawer fronts for a highboy with stump veneer and am quite impressed with how it looks. Running vertically it creates the illusion of a waterfall. Really something different from the burls and crotches everybody uses.
pretty wood. Hard to saw and dry due to the irregular nature of the grain and generally will dry like burl. I have 4 rootballs to saw now and start by cleaning them up with a pressure washer to remove rocks, trim off all the feeder roots and flitch cut through and through on my slabber. I saw as thick as possible (6") and as wide as possible that way I can resaw to whatever is needed. Then I watch it air dry for an eternity becase kiln drying this material without a microwave or vacuum kiln is ludicrous.
Edited 4/21/2006 5:01 pm ET by Sawmillnc
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