I cut down this English Walnut at my sisters house a couple weeks ago. The 2 harsh winters in a row we had in '13 and '14 killed it, and it had started dropping large branches anytime we had a decent gust of wind. I noticed some nice curl in the grain of the wedge I removed for the notch, so I was expecting to find some figure near the stump. I worked on the first 8' of it today, and turns out the curl extends at least through all of that.
That's some spectacular wood. Make sure to dry it very slowly and then when you go to use it, be very careful. Given the asymmetry of the sap wood, figure on one side and the off -center pith, there is bound to be some serious reaction wood in there. Of course, that's what makes for interesting figure, double-edged sword...
European Walnut is just a little less density than Black Walnut but no matter what its called (English,French,Carpathian,Circassian,Italian etc depending on growth origin) its highly prized for expensive gunstocks,grips,butts & other ornamental uses.I forget which but either Rolls-Royce or Jag-u-ar used it for many years in their dashboard instrument panels & gear shift knobs. French & Carpathian are especially sought after for the tannish brown background & dark brown/black streaks & marble like veining.Most likely due to certain special soil or growing conditions which result in such beauty.I've got a few smaller blocks/chunks/spindle stock in my stash for years,its not often seen in the States as raw lumber since like Olivewood & a few other European/Mediterannean woods they prefer to export the finished product instead. I also have some Claro Walnut from northern California.Its similar to Black Walnut in color,texture,grain but usually a bit more medium brown instead of gray or chocolate purplish brown. For many years it was thought to be either a hybrid of European/Black Walnut but extensive research found its indeed a separate species,native to that area from Oregon to central California.Its used as rootstock in orchards for the European (California) Walnut because of several factors.
Beautiful planks. That should make for some fine pieces. I salvaged an old apothecary cabinet that I am pretty sure is English walnut. It had bottom rot from where it sat in some water. I disassembled it and cut off the rot and made a new bookcase. It was excellent to work with. I wish I had more.
Nice day today, so I worked on another section of the walnut after work. There's one more nice 4' section left to go on this one.
And here's the rest. The remaining 2 pieces I think will be difficult to get any stable lumber out of, so they'll be firewood.
I will measure something tonight if you are willing to sell. Since this is FHC, I am guessing the slab is bone dry and ready for final finish??
I need a 2 inch thick slab of black walnut, approximately 6.5 ft long and 2 ft wide. PM me for price if you do care to sell.
I hauled all of the wane cuts home with me because they all had curly grain too and I want to make some benches out of them. I started planing one of them out tonight after work. Oh my. I need a better camera cause I don't think it's coming anywhere close to capturing how gorgeous it's turning out.
The small plane is a no 65 low-angle block. It's the best one I have for working difficult grain. But I was only using that one to clean up some marks left by my grandfathers no 605 which did the bulk of the work.
605 Bedrock? Those are top notch,very close in performance to my Scottish/English heavy infill planes.... Though its hard for me to put down the Ulmia/E.C.Emmerich beech & pearwood smoother/jointer with that super fine adjustment system....
