My dad had the tree next to his house cut down for safety reasons (dropping limbs on the house). He sold the 5 1/2 foot diameter trunk with all the burls and crotch and a couple large limbs to Goby Walnut (I’m still mad about that) but we were left with 3 large limbs (3 foot diameter if I remember correctly) and smaller that we had cut up into varying widths and lengths. We’re planing it now and it’s some really beautiful stuff. Getting the dark chocolate to the red colors, some light to fairly consistent “quilting” (or curly or tiger stripe or whatever you want to call it) with some marbling here and there. I’m keeping some longer lenghts for some projects and a lot of the under 3 foot lengths that we had to cut that way due to some twisting (in order to plane it flat) for small projects like humidors etc. I’d like to get some advice on how to finish in a way that really highlights the figure. I’ve gotten advice from just using tung oil to varnish/shellac to using water based stains etc. The wood has been air dried for 6 months and kiln dried for 30 days.
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Replies
Walnut
I would let the wood dry a good while longer after final planing. The finishing advice you mention at the end is what I think most here would agree with. Color, luster, and highlighting the grain are personal choices you have to decide. For the humidors are you going to line the interior with cedar ?
SA
How much longer would you think it needs to dry? Since I ended up with some 2/4 small pieces ( 24 inches or less long by 7-8 inches wide) I thought i'd make 3 or 4 humidors. I plan on lining with the traditional spanish cedar. This will make you roll your eyes. My wife wants end tables and I plan on doing a dining table. For her end tables I took a small piece of scrap that represents the figure in quite a lot of the wood and rubbed some food safe wood oil on it to give her an idea of the color and figure. "I don't like that color". After testing some stain colors on the other side of that piece she's settled on.....wait for it......red mahogany.
Wife is Helping !
In terms of drying I think the rule of thumb is 1 year / inch thickness of wood. Maybe others here know better hopefully they can jump in and add their expertise. You can also go to a lumber yard and ask them if they have a moisture meter to check the wood for you.
If you add red stain to walnut the finished look will be brown mahogany not red mahogany. When you work with wood long enough walnut is brown and mahogany is red - that's what you expect to see - my opinion -
SA
DO NOT use your beautiful walnut if it is going to be covered with red mahogany stain. That represents sacriledge.
On the other hand, limb wood is quite likely to be unstable even after being fully dried. Humidors seem to be a better size to cope with than end tables and in particular a dining table, and even with humidors I would want to be very conscious of potential for wood movement and warping in the design of the construction.
As was mentioned a year per inch of thickness is a rule of thumb for air drying. Then it needs to be brought to working moisture levels by drying in doors in conditioned spaces. A moisture meter would be a good idea. Your target humidity level is the same as that which you measure on wooded furniture that has lived in the same room as you expect to put any new pieces.
I know, I told the wife the same thing, but that's what she wants and we have A LOT of scrap to work with. I think I'll use some of the outside pieces from the large limbs that have 1/3 or so sapwood in the board since she wants it stained. Anything else I just want to let the natural beauty of the wood come through without any staining. That's why I want to get the best tips on which finish to use (i.e. poly, tung oil, laquer etc). I'm hoping that the wood has moved the most that it is. That's why we ended up with quite a bit of small pieces and scrap. For example I would have an 8 foot long board but it had a twist as well as a bow to it so we cut it down to the longest we could by hitting the points like the middle of the twist. We're using a dewalt planer which doesn't put a huge amount of pressure on the wood from the feed rollers so we were able to then take the pieces down to like 3/4 or 2/4 and plane the bow and high spots out of it and come out with either a completely flat board or just a very very very tiny bow or twist still left in it (less than a 1/32 movement). I'll let it sit for a few more months then to make sure that it doesn't move any more but the guy that my dad had dry it for him has been milling/drying hardwood for 40+ years and after he did the 6 months air 30 days kiln he told us it should be good to go. I would say out of the approximately 1000 BF we ended up with about half very straight, 1/4 slight movement and 1/4 with moderate to really heavy movement. Not bad considering I would think considering it all came from 2 1/2 to 3 ft main branches off the 5 ft trunk. I just REALLY wish he had kept the trunk and had it milled. There was one large burl on one side that was easily 2 1/2 feet across. The stump had HEAVY curl in it too. But, oh well, it will make nice conference tables (that's what they're known for making with large trunks like that).
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