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English Walnut for harvest? (dead tree)

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English Walnut for harvest? (dead tree)

Postby Jimmy Mack » 24 Sep 2016, 10:39

My wife's colleague has offered up an 'English Walnut' which is to be chopped down as it is (apparently) dead...how dead? I'm not too sure. I do know it had a TPO and he's a bit naughty when it comes to planning permissions...My gut says it could be more trouble than it's worth as I don't have any kit to saw it up into planks - not even a chain saw...I suppose it might have some burrs, but these would need slicing.

What are folks thoughts...Is it worth investigating? Should I stay away? Anything to consider when viewing?

Jim
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Re: English Walnut for harvest? (dead tree)

Postby Wizard9999 » 24 Sep 2016, 13:05

Have to say I have developed a mild addiction to all the DIY milling videos on YouTube recently, all from the US though if I recall. Given that I would almost certainly want to try it, but like you do not have the kit. I have a big Ash tree on my drive that needs to come down soon and I am thinking of paying to have a mobile sawmill come along and plank it for me. No idea if that is economic or ot, but I do like the idea of one day making something from my own tree that I have seen felled and milled.

Not sure that ramble helps you much though :lol:

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Re: English Walnut for harvest? (dead tree)

Postby Rod » 24 Sep 2016, 13:06

Walnut is a very nice and valuable wood.
Depends on the size but you would need to cut it into planks and dry it for a few years before you could use it for woodworking.
Smaller pieces you could use for wood turning.

Rod
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Re: English Walnut for harvest? (dead tree)

Postby Doug » 24 Sep 2016, 13:59

It depends on how much he wants for if, walnut can be a bugger for checking & can have a lot of hidden faults, I bought this tree 30 months ago from a church grave yard it was very cheap as they couldn't get machinery in to take it down so was cut up quite haphazardly so it could be man handled between the graves.

Whilst it has some lovely figuring there was quite a lot of rot as the tree had died, that said it ended up yielding a lot of useable timber mainly due to its huge size, it must have been many hundreds of years old.


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I'd definitely go look at the tree on offer, if it has good figuring it can be worth a lot of money especially for gun stocks,
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Re: English Walnut for harvest? (dead tree)

Postby Dan0741 » 28 Sep 2016, 17:32

Since moving and installing a large woodburner i have taken down a few quite large trees locally and chopped up for firewood, i appreciate that milling is different thing all together, and i too seem to have the Alaskan sawmill video fetish described above, but i would definately have a look, it could be a little earner...

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I have had great fun and saved hundreds in firewood costs!

:D
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Re: English Walnut for harvest? (dead tree)

Postby Wizard9999 » 28 Sep 2016, 21:47

Dan0741 wrote:... i too seem to have the Alaskan sawmill video fetish described above...

It's Matt Cremona's bandsaw mill build that is my current addiction, his log lift trailer is good lumber porn as well :lol:

Terry.
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Re: English Walnut for harvest? (dead tree)

Postby Jimmy Mack » 01 Oct 2016, 14:10

Wizard9999 wrote:
Dan0741 wrote:... i too seem to have the Alaskan sawmill video fetish described above...

It's Matt Cremona's bandsaw mill build that is my current addiction, his log lift trailer is good lumber porn as well :lol:

Terry.


That guy's great...always smiling too :)


Dan how do you get permission to chop trees down?! We have a burner too, at the moment I have mountains of offcuts from the workshop/ studio build! :lol:
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Re: English Walnut for harvest? (dead tree)

Postby Dan0741 » 01 Oct 2016, 15:28

Jimmy you know it surprised me too.

I live in the country and ive tried to make friends with local farmers. Im always ready to help them out if they ever need a hand, and you would be surprised how many people will ask for your help if you get a name for a dealing with the odd rotten tree. In the winter when its stormy I keep my eyes peeled for windblown stuff also. The lady next door who bought a large house on her own needed two large trees removing that i did in the winter and removed the wood as a favour.

Im careful not to take on very complicated stuff, i was offered a Douglas Fir that was rotten all the way up and declined as it was about 1.2 meters thick at the base and was worried it was going to shatter into bits when i started cutting...and one that was blown over onto a wall and was sprung like a bow.

I love doing it and if i had the opportunity when i was younger i would have done more of it. Im very much an amateur that knows his limits...:D
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Re: English Walnut for harvest? (dead tree)

Postby Jimmy Mack » 02 Oct 2016, 13:07

Dan that's great ! I think I'd like to do a bit on a similar scale as you do, I do have one farmer pal...but with a 1.5 year old I seem to have no time (or energy) for anything extra at the mo!

Hopefully I'll get news on the walnut soon...

Jim

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