Author Topic: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)  (Read 7670 times)

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Offline ricktrojanowski

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Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« on: March 30, 2008, 07:21:57 pm »
I cut this today in my parents yard.  I think it's a black walnut.  Just a guess it's been a long time since my last field botany class. ??? It appears to be all sapwood.  There is a small amount of the darker heartwood about 1".    The wide end is about 7" and the narrow one about 5".  Does it look like Black Walnut?  Is it worth trying to make a bow from?  Any advice is greatly appreciated.

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Traverse City, MI

Offline DanaM

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2008, 07:29:29 pm »
BW don't grow up here but I would think here would be more heart wood. Sure is straight eh.
More mystery wood :D
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330bull

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2008, 07:33:10 pm »
Based on the off center core, it appears there's an obvious tension side.  Am I correct Rick?

Offline Pat B

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2008, 07:34:25 pm »
Sorta looks like it to me. Split it in half and seal the ends. I would make an overbuilt(as per Paul Comstock) bow out of it. After it has seasoned for a while, remove the bark and that will be your back. Ideally you should wait until the growing season to harvest whitewoods(and yes, BW is considered whitewood in bow building)so the bark peels off easily. Depending on where you live, it may peel easily anyway. 
  Dana, It takes a big walnut to get enough heartwood to be valuable. Walnut has very thick sapwood. Generally speaking, if you were to grow BW for a money crop, it would be your grand children that would reap the benefits. ;D     Pat
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

jamie

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2008, 07:35:12 pm »
black walnut doesnt get a heart wood till it gets older . looks like walnut or butternut. i know butternut is crap

Offline Justin Snyder

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2008, 08:04:51 pm »
I could get two piggyback staves of sapwood without getting into the heartwood on the 16" diameter log in my garage.  Justin
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Offline DanaM

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2008, 08:05:35 pm »
Thanks fer the edukamation Pat
"Prosperity is a way of living and thinking, and not just money or things. Poverty is a way of living and thinking, and not just a lack of money or things."

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Offline ricktrojanowski

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2008, 09:54:29 pm »
Joe- probably not a tension thing more of a wind driven thing.  I think the narrower rings were on the nw side (wind side).
Dana- It is sick straight, that's part of the reason I wanted it. That and the B.L. I cut was complete garbage.  I'll bring some of the mystery wood to TN.
Pat B and Jamie-  I'll do as Pat suggests and hope for walnut not the crappy butternut.
Traverse City, MI

Offline GregB

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #8 on: March 31, 2008, 09:45:28 am »
Bark looks like walnut to me. :)
Greg

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Offline Hillbilly

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #9 on: March 31, 2008, 10:02:26 am »
It's definitely walnut. Probably black, could possibly be butternut, but there's not much butternut left anymore (at least around here) after the butternut canker disease has killed most of them. Like others said, black walnut doesn't get much heartwood until it's older. You would usually see a couple inches of heartwood in one that size, but if it's in a place where it's growing fast there won't be hardly any. Sapwood is what you want for a walnut bow anyway. It should have a distinct smell to it, too, and yellowish colored inner bark.
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Offline RG

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2008, 07:25:30 pm »
Maybe Pappy wil jump in here and tell the story but seems like I remember when I first started coming around the Twin Oaks Club someone brought a log down and they said it was white walnut I had never heard of it

Ron

Offline Pat B

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2008, 07:51:58 pm »
Ron, White walnut is also called butternut.    Pat
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline RG

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #12 on: March 31, 2008, 08:21:04 pm »
Cool Thanks Pat

Ron

Offline Sidewinder

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #13 on: March 31, 2008, 08:23:44 pm »
Thats a nice looking log by anyones standards. I hope for your sake it turns out to be good bow wood.  Danny
"You know a tree by the fruit it bears"   God

Offline ricktrojanowski

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Re: Black Walnut ??? (w/pics)
« Reply #14 on: March 31, 2008, 10:25:57 pm »
I bandsawed it in half today.... Definitely black walnut. There was only a little bit of heatwood in it but that was the aroma that only black walnut has. ;D.  I have it drying bark on ends sealed.  Can I debark and dry or would I have to coat the back w/shellac after debarking as if it was osage?
Traverse City, MI