Black Walnut log price - Page 2 - Woodworking Talk

firefighteremt153 · 06-14-2008, 09:44 AM

Ok so one of the Fire Chiefs that work for my dept has a bunch of land and several trees fell after a storm and he decided to by a mill rather than cut them to firewood. He has agreed to mill my logs for me. Me, the Chief and a fellow FF went back to where I purchased the large walnut logs yesterday to get some of the other Free logs the guy was offering. Well the guy told me to take anything I wanted b/c he was done selling logs and was gonna start cutting for firewood. With that said, we went and got the Chiefs tractor and two trailors and loaded up 4 trailers worth of free logs. In the end, we got 32 logs, roughly 18-19 black walnuts with the smallest being around 10" diameter, maybe around 5-6 very large sycamore logs average of 25-26" diameter, and the rest is ash I think but Im not positive, just what we were told.

Chief has had his mill (Hudson Band mill 28") for about a week now and has played around with some pine and gum logs and has flat sawn them pretty good I suppose. My question to yall ("Clearing throat right now" Daren) is there some literature that I could read to help us with reading the logs in order to yield the nicest boards possible? Here's some pics of our logs from yesterday. The 3rd pic is what we think is ash?

**Daren** · 06-14-2008, 10:16 AM

The 3rd is an ash. No problems there, just make a square and start sawing lumber. Make a couple cuts on each side to get from round to square, those boards will have bark on the edges that gets trimmed off to make a smaller straight board. Bummer the guy milling has so little experience, I would 1/4 saw the sycamore (picture below of what that looks like, bottom one). Flat sawn it ok wood, but nothing special really. Those smaller walnut logs look tough, way more white sapwood than I see around here (limbs ?). Since I assume you have no way to steam the walnut to even out the color you are going to have alot of "odd" wood or alot of waste just milling the dark heart. I would just flitch saw a couple that have the heavy sap for a novelty like the other picture attached. I would saw that stuff thicker than the final intended use, from my experience with that much sap wood it was a "fast grower" and will not want to dry flat.

I honestly don't know any literature sources for you to study, maybe someone else can help out there ? I just learned the hard way I guess you could say, got my mill-got some logs-tore into them. I might have been able to do better on a few starting out, but this is not really rocket science. If a guy is familiar with wood and knows what he wants the lumber to look like the mill will take care of that.

In case you missed where arkyrick asked about 1/4 sawing and I tried to explain here it is Business question, buying lumber
Those sycamore are well worth the extra effort.

firefighteremt153 · 06-14-2008, 10:35 AM

Daren, yes the smaller walnut is limbs, we were basically just going to use those as trial and error logs. I was planning on just flitch sawing the walnut but if you know a better way than Im open for suggestions. The sycamore is going to be 1/4 sawn. We're gonna practice on some less desirable logs until we get it figured out. Any pointers? When you say stemaing the wood, what exactly do you mean by it and how would one do it?

**Daren** · 06-14-2008, 10:51 AM

Sounds like a plan, practice on the lesser logs (shoot the price was right even if you goof a couple up). Flitch sawing is ok. You know how to sticker and air dry lumber right ?

As far as steaming walnut. I don't like it. It is done alot commercially. The steaming basically takes the color from the heart and dyes the white part. Ok, so you get darker sapwood...but IMO it ruins the color of the heartwood. Makes it bland and boring because it mellows the subtly contrasting colors. Illinois walnut can have killer colors, not just brown/black but streaks of all colors. Some think that is a good thing, they argue it makes for more consistent color for making a project. I think that is a cop out and sales gimmick. I would never steam walnut, I should have not even brought it up.

firefighteremt153 · 06-14-2008, 11:06 AM

I think im good with the drying aspect. Got some Cherry drying right now since feb and it's doing really well, about 18% MC the last time I checked. I think im gonna stay away from the steam and just be happy with what Mother nature gives me. Would you happen to have a link to TexasTimbers 1/4 sawing tutorial?

dirtclod · 06-14-2008, 11:56 AM

I agree with all Daren said: Flat-saw the larger walnut, q-saw the sycamore, flat-saw the ash (the double eye would interfer with good q-sawing results), and use the limbs for practice.

Here's a must-read for new millers: http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_bas...ade_lumber.pdf

Another q-sawing link: http://www.scottbanbury.com/quartersawing.html

If you don't have any, I would cut a lot of the ash into stickers. You're going to need a lot of them. Get that log on the mill first. Have your plan for/and drying area ready before you start.

**Daren** · 06-14-2008, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by firefighteremt153

Would you happen to have a link to TexasTimbers 1/4 sawing tutorial?

That one dirtclod linked is just as good (I was just trying to rattle TT's cage, ain't heard from him for awhile) I know Scott Banbury too, have for 5 years (?) He is another urban logger. I almost linked his site in another discussion here where parbuckling was brought up, he does alot of that.

firefighteremt153 · 06-15-2008, 07:25 AM

Thanks for the all the help Daren & Dirtclod, I think with the info I have found on here from you guys and some practice logs we might be able to figure this 1/4 sawing out. I hope!