I've been offered a free Walnut tree

[Steliz]

My next door neighbour has a Walnut tree that died 1 or 2 years ago and he intends to get it felled. I asked him if I could have the wood and he is happy for me to take it. I'll worry about the logistics of that later.

Will the time it has been dead have had any negative impact on the usefullness of the wood? The tree has recently started sporting a ring of fungi around it's base.

 

[Lazurus]

Only one way to know for sure is to fell and mill it, I have had some great trees this way, even if there is some decay there will be a lot to salvage, use a chainsaw mill and cut to planks to assist drying and transport.

 

[gregmcateer]

Gift horse and mouth springs to mind - Grab every last bit of it you can - As Lazurus says, they'll almost certainly be plenty of useable timber. If you can't store it all, let me know and if you are within reasonable(ish!) distance of the west midlands, i'll happily come and 'assist' with re-purposing/storing!!

Seriously, though, get the surgeon to cut it into as long pieces as you can manage, to avoid excess loss through splitting. And if you want a hand cutting it up on the ground, if you aren't to far away, I'd be happy to bring along the chainsaw and help you process it, for a few pieces.

Cheers

Greg

 

[topchippyles]

What area are you as i can mill that for you to any size,I am south wales

 

[MusicMan]

It should not be a problem, and as said there should be a lot of useful wood.

Note that the best planks will come out of the straight lower trunk. It looks fairly upright and symmetrical, so these should be evenly stressed. The branches will be less useful, as they will contain reaction wood, in tension on the upper sides of the branches. Hence they will relax and tend to curve on planking. See Sgain Dhu (Richard Jones) recent post on how to test for stress. Anyway, there is no reason why you should not make bowl blanks out of these: just saw them across and wax the end grain.

If there are any burrs, they would make wonderful veneer.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

The dead walnut pieces we have had at our greenwood meets show a surprising and unfortunate property; unlike most woods the dark heartwood rots away much quicker than the white sapwood, leaving a tube of the less interesting stuff. Useful for bird boxes or maybe a dijeridoo, but not much else. Hope your tree is in better condition !

 

[Steliz]

Thanks for the replies and offers of help which I would have gladly accepted.
Unfortunately, the tree (and me) are very far away as I now live in Hungary.

 

[Droogs]

might want to update profile then

 

[Nigel Burden]

The fungi growing around the base of the tree look to me like Armillaria Mellea commonly called the honey fungus. This is a parasitic fungus that causes the death of trees. Whether it has an adverse affect on the quality of the wood I don't know, but free wood would be tempting.

Nigel

 

[Droogs]

re above = means you could get some nice spalting in the burr from the tree's bowl

 

[Deadeye]

That does look like honey fungus. Don't let shavings/chippings get on your garden.

 

[Steliz]

The fungi growing around the base of the tree look to me like Armillaria Mellea commonly called the honey fungus. This is a parasitic fungus that causes the death of trees. Whether it has an adverse affect on the quality of the wood I don't know, but free wood would be tempting.

OK, thanks. Perhaps that's what killed it then.

Some spalted wood would be an excellent bonus and, just to clarify the 'free' part of the title, I would contribute towards the cost of the felling.