My Dad's firewood guy did some logging over at my sisters place a few years ago, and part of the deal was to remove this 4' diameter walnut from the side yard. Today was finally the day! He must have forgot how big the tree was, because all he brought was an MS361 and 441. Luckily I brought my Mastermind MS660 and 32" bar, so that did the honors. I would have wanted to piece it down. No bucket truck here - he just notched it, and my dad pushed it over with the FEL. Now that its on the ground, its mine. The firewood is going to my BIL, and I'm keeping the big pieces to mill into slabs and lumber.
Well it was my BIL who really hated that tree. It was a great walnut producer, and it a nice job filling his pool with them, and he was always raking them up or sharpening his mower blades cause he missed a few. Luckily it's got a few real nice babies at the edge of the woods. I have a large salad serving bowl full of the nuts from that tree. If it was up to me, he would have kept it, but I didn't have to live with it either.
My sister took this pic. I'm in the red shirt, Dennis has my helmet and 460. He needed me to start the 660 again. He offered to run another tank through it and help me put the tops on the ground. I told him I knew he just wanted to play with it some more.. So he ran the 660, and I ran the 460, and we made short work of it: This is when a sawbuck comes in handy... I think most of this firewood is going to get stacked right next to that Norway.
Nice job Be fun to run someone else's big saw with a big bar & give it back for them to sharpen LOL Looks like a fun day
Good job there, you guys took care of that bugger. No more nuts, falling on the ground. Between the acorns and the hickory nuts its nut city around here
The pool is already untarped? Wow... We are about 2 weeks away from that... Ok...Back to regular scheduled programming... Wow that is a big tree, lotta of wood coming from that Grand Walnut tree. Great Job!
That log will make some great slabs. Cut them 2-2.5" thick and let them dry for 6 months and then kiln dry them if you want to work with them sooner.
Roots are what some rifle stocks are made from. Might be worth digging up the big ones & milling a few blanks.
That's the stuff that $1000 wood stock blanks come from. If you dig up the root ball and the first 4' it might be sellable. Is the trunk solid and free of rot or cracks? That said, not all large walnut bottoms are worth big bucks and I wouldn't mill it because the super-premium blanks come from an expert looking at it and deciding the best direction to section it down. Either way if you split that it will be ready for shoulder season either this fall or next spring. Mine dried very fast in a covered outdoor area.
Don't worry - you won't be seeing this one on Craigslist. Its not for sale. This may be the only walnut ill harvest from the property in my lifetime. I'm going to take my time and mill every last bit that I can.
