If the wood is already cured with bark on I would reccomend just debarking and using that as the back. I harvested a couple that I thought were elm and when I got them split out realized it was walnut. I processed one right off the bat and took it to the heartwood. Then I did another one about 4 mo later and I must say I won't do that again, talk abiout tough once the saps down and the sap wood hardens. The other two I have will be just deabrked and be a sapwood/heartwood combo. I intend to do one real soon. I thought the heavy white /dark contrast might look cool too. I will post it as soon as it is done.
Does anyone have suggestions on walnut? What I mean is, how is it to work with and is it very durable? given the dimensions of 66" 1.5 fades pyramid style, is 60#@28 a reasonable expectation? Also do you need to try and chase a ring on the all heartwood staves or what?
Ryan, beautiful job on that one. Makes you wonder why more people are working with it. Does anyone have an opinion as to why? Danny