Hinglish or Murrican walnut; which is more stable??

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Midnight

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A (hopefully) forthcoming project in the non too distant future has a requirement for seasoned, slow growth heartwood walnut, straightness of grain and dimensional stability far outweighing the importance of "nice" grain...
Having worked with neither, can anyone advise which would be the better?? Furthermore, are there any reputable suppliers who wouldn't take advantage of a "bought blind" low volume order?? I ask cos I doubt I'll find any locally...
 
Mike

I got 4 sawn boards of American black walnut from SL Hardwoods last year. Two of them had worm holes across half their width! :( :x

It was evenly dried to, IIRC 12% on my meter. It looked to me from the end grain that it had come from a fairly small tree and certainly wasn't quarter sawn. I machined it down to the largest sizes I could get out of it and there was slight cupping after I ripped it down for use. I put it through the P/T again and it has been stable since.

This is my only experience of working with walnut I'm afraid so I dunno if that's much help to you. It's lovely stuff to put a tool to though.

Cheers
Scott
 
Mike,

There is absolutely no question that it will be ten times easier to get better quality wood in black walnut. English walnut is hard to come by, expensive and subject to every known problem that trees suffer with shakes and knots aplenty. Black walnut will be far better for the spec you describe.

It would be extreme folly to buy English walnut without picking it out yourself. For that matter I would rather choose Black walnut too as it is also quite expensive and unless you have a good relationship with the yard, they are likely to send you the stuff with knots, sapwood and shakes that no-one else wants.
 
mike give ambrose mcgrath a call in liverpool on 0151 298 9898 ask for peter he might be able to help you ,its worth a phone call, say frank from runcorn told you ,i have had some nice bits of wood off him . hope this helps
 
Thanks for the advise so far guys.. your points are well noted. I asked having been burned with buying blind before; quality was fine, but the price.... sheesh...

Walnut would be nice, but Plan B allows for Ash to be used as an alternative... given the cost and potential pot-holes, I'm thinking it might be the better option...

for the record, the intended project is a variation of this...

http://www.patwarner.com/routerfence.html

plan is to adapt the sizes to mate it to Norm's table.....
 
Walnut for a router fence?! :shock: :shock: :shock: I may cry... There's gotta be something cheaper and less lovely than that you can use. :roll:

Cheers, Alf
 
Well I suppose if he keeps it on show in the living room it maybe just about justifies the use of Ash??? :lol:

But walnut?

Adam
 
Walnut for a router fence?! I may cry... There's gotta be something cheaper and less lovely than that you can use.

On questioning the designer himself re alternatives to the exotics he'd used (and still uses for the fences built to order) walnut was the recommendation I received, ash being a slightly less stable alternative; given that the guy has a lifetime of experience working with the material and that he's done his homework re the characteristics required to ensure the stability of each piece in question, who am I to argue..?? Besides, I said stable, not purty...

Well I suppose if he keeps it on show in the living room it maybe just about justifies the use of Ash???

But walnut?

Nope, "he'll" be keeping it in the workshop, not the living room nor the shed neither... furthermore, given the investment in time required to build it, he;ll be expecting it to last a wee while too... I trust you've no objection to that...?????

Failing that, "he" is perfectly willing to listen to any and all reasonable suggestions for suitable alternatives.. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I thought that forums such as this were exactly the place to discuss such things....
<thinking surely a Mod would have more decency than to address someone in the 3rd person... but again... what do I know from manners...
 
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