Wood it's characteristics and use in model building

[paul ron]

i love walnut! back in the 60s my parents had a country place in vernon valley nj. along side loundberry hollow road, a small dirt road, had a huge walnut tree. it took 6 kids holding hands to go around it. it must have been over 100 feet tall as well.

when the county decided to pave and widen the road the had to cut the tree down. the tree had barbed wire sticking out of it near the base. well using massive saws the guys tried cutting but kept hitting something inside. they kept going up higher n higher. at about 8' up from the bottom they finally cut through and down she went. they brought in bull dozers to remove the base. turns out there was a huge bolder inside. someone said that tree must have been several hundred years old because his great great grand parents, who originally owned the property, had pictures of the tree on their farm.

i still have a few boards of that tree and treasure them so much i just cant find myself making anything from it. but the wood is a deep deep brown i havent seen in any walnut ive aquired over the years.

they dont make em like they use to. slow grown n tight grained.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

i love walnut! back in the 60s my parents had a country place in vernon valley nj. along side loundberry hollow road, a small dirt road, had a huge walnut tree. it took 6 kids holding hands to go around it. it must have been over 100 feet tall as well.

when the county decided to pave and widen the road the had to cut the tree down. the tree had barbed wire sticking out of it near the base. well using massive saws the guys tried cutting but kept hitting something inside. they kept going up higher n higher. at about 8' up from the bottom they finally cut through and down she went. they brought in bull dozers to remove the base. turns out there was a huge bolder inside. someone said that tree must have been several hundred years old because his great great grand parents, who originally owned the property, had pictures of the tree on their farm.

i still have a few boards of that tree and treasure them so much i just cant find myself making anything from it. but the wood is a deep deep brown i havent seen in any walnut ive aquired over the years.

they dont make em like they use to. slow grown n tight grained.

Great story

the Walnut in the picture where i am holding a chainsaw came from the schoolyard here in town. There was a protest against taking the tree down but in the end the school board won and the tree was killed. Reason so i heard some kid sprained an ankle stepping on a walnut and it was decided the tree was a danger to the school kids. Even though the tree was there for 200 years it is now a danger. My brother and i put in a lowball bid hoping to salvage the wood from becoming firewood. As it ended up the Walnut was given to the local wood turning club as well as wood carvers and model builders.

fresh cut Walnut is actually an olive green color and within days starts to turn brown and the color gets richer and deeper. Over time.

Sawmills in the area shy away from urban logs for the very reason as you said wire, nails, screws, and all sorts of things pounded into the tree.

Before i cut the logs i have i strip the bark and look for black stains this tells me there is iron in the wood.

 

[paul ron]

Great story

the Walnut in the picture where i am holding a chainsaw came from the schoolyard here in town. There was a protest against taking the tree down but in the end the school board won and the tree was killed. Reason so i heard some kid sprained an ankle stepping on a walnut and it was decided the tree was a danger to the school kids. Even though the tree was there for 200 years it is now a danger. My brother and i put in a lowball bid hoping to salvage the wood from becoming firewood. As it ended up the Walnut was given to the local wood turning club as well as wood carvers and model builders.

fresh cut Walnut is actually an olive green color and within days starts to turn brown and the color gets richer and deeper. Over time.

Sawmills in the area shy away from urban logs for the very reason as you said wire, nails, screws, and all sorts of things pounded into the tree.

Before i cut the logs i have i strip the bark and look for black stai

its sad because a kid sprianed his foot on a nut as a reason to cut down such an old tree. if the kid hit his head on the side of the school... would they tear down the school?

man if one of those baseball sized green fruits hit you on the head, youd have one heck of a knob or a concussion. us kids would take the hulls off and have purple hands for a week. we drew temp tatoos with the juice too.

use a compass for finding metal in wood but rocks are a different story. it is amazing how trees can grow over things.

the juice of the hulls is used as wood stain.

How to make wood stain from black walnut hulls - Farm and Dairy

The natural pigment black walnuts leave behind makes them ideal for staining wood. Learn three different methods to make wood stain from black walnut hulls.

www.farmanddairy.com

video here...

https://www.wwgoa.com/video/making-your-own-walnut-stain-000297/

.

 

[Roger Pellett]

The old farmer trick was to put the walnuts into a burlap feed sack and to lay it out in the road. Cars running over it would shuck the green husks from the nuts. After drying, the shells of the nuts had to be cracked and the walnut meat picked out. A fiddly activity best done in front of a fireplace on a cold night.

When I lived in Marietta, Ohio a guy at work gave me a 3” x 8” piece of walnut lumber that had once been one of the main stringers from an old hay wagon. Really nice stuff.

Roger

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

walnuts you collect in the wild are not the same as the ones you buy in the grocery store those have a thin shell you can crack easy, the ones in the wild the black walnuts you need a vice or hammer to crack them open.

i have not tried this but i was once told if you lay walnut lumber in the hot sun it will fade to a honey color or paint it with a mixture of vinegar and steel wool it will turn black. White Walnut (Butternut) is protected in Canada you cannot cut down a Butternut tree. Butternut trees are found around the Great Lakes region and only here so i am told.

 

[ChrisP]

............ the school board won and the tree was killed. Reason so i heard some kid sprained an ankle stepping on a walnut and it was decided the tree was a danger to the school kids. Even though the tree was there for 200 years it is now a danger. ............

... and your much admired cool:????) president believes Europe is doomed as a result of political correctness.

 

[Kurt Konrath]

Years ago when I was still in the Air Force, at the base swimming pool, when life guards failed to enforce rules on number of people on diving board ladder, and a child decided not to jump off the high dive and tried to climb back down the over-crowed ladder, he fell and suffered a concussion. The answer was not to enforce policy or fire the life guard, they took out the diving platform to prevent any chance of it happening again.

 

[RussF]

We seem to be obsessed in the US with protecting people from their own stupidity. About 25 years ago, I was in Sydney, Aus. for 3 weeks on business. One of the weekends, we took a road trip down along the coast and ended up at Little Blowhole, just south of Wollongong.



I struck up a conversation with someone In uniform that I assumed to be some sort of ranger and mentioned how surprised I was that there no guard rails around the site. He smiled and asked, "You're from America, aren't you?" "Yes", I said, "how can you tell?" He said, "Here in Australia, we believe that if you're stupid enough to wander over and fall in, well, you probably deserved it!"

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

oh my Russ that actually made me laugh

yes it is sad a kid twists an ankle and a majestic 200+ year old tree is cut down.

but it might of been cut down anyway
The city has applied for a state grant that would help pay for the demolition of the former Central Elementary School
However, City Council has not yet decided whether to tear down the school, which was built in the early 1900s

so for 100 years the tree was never a problem until that one person decided it is a threat to the kids.

 

[RussF]

Don't get me started... Just remember that no matter how many laws, regulations, barriers, safety features and child-proof caps we create - you just can't fix stupid!

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

The Walnut is a prime example of looking locally for wood, what sells for as high as $60.00 per foot or more is considered firewood in my neck of the woods. There are 3 sites that process firewood in the area where tree service companies dump logs. You will find prime Cherry, Poplar, Walnut, Maple and fruit wood. like Pear and Apple all kinds of stuff. The problem for a hobby person is how to process a log the weight of 900 pounds. You need heavy equipment. But if it grows in the area someone has a sawmill that cuts lumber or local sources that supply wood. It was great for model ship builders to use Swiss pearwood, Holly, Ebony, Boxwood and others but when the price went from $9.00 a foot to $40.00 to $90.00 a foot it is time to rethink the wood to use.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

you want Osage Orange it's free come and get it



How about prime black cherry $35.00 a ton



bring your chain saw and a crane








how about a truck load delivered of Walnut, cherry, Poplar, Maple



all these are within a 50 mile radius of where i live.
logs are cheap the cost for "lumber" starts when you have to transport them to a sawmill then the cost of cutting, kiln drying, grading the wood.
Call a local tree service and ask them what they do with the trees when they cut them down. Look for wood workers they have connections.

if you are looking for Cherry don't look for it on the west coast look for dealers where the wood grows like Ohio or Pennsylvania. They are sourcing their supply locally.

 

[paul ron]

you want Osage Orange it's free come and get it

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How about prime black cherry $35.00 a ton

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bring your chain saw and a crane

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how about a truck load delivered of Walnut, cherry, Poplar, Maple

View attachment 562888View attachment 562892

all these are within a 50 mile radius of where i live.
logs are cheap the cost for "lumber" starts when you have to transport them to a sawmill then the cost of cutting, kiln drying, grading the wood.
Call a local tree service and ask them what they do with the trees when they cut them down. Look for wood workers they have connections.

if you are looking for Cherry don't look for it on the west coast look for dealers where the wood grows like Ohio or Pennsylvania. They are sourcing their supply locally.

wow all those beautiful straight logs ready for the mill. id be very happy with a branch about 6" round 24" long.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

wow all those beautiful straight logs ready for the mill. id be very happy with a branch about 6" round 24" long.

The point is you as a model builder should not have to be limited to expensive wood bought online, some asking prices are way out of line. There are a lot of usable woods that can be found in the wild that can be used.
I realize getting a 10 foot log that weighs half a ton is not practical but if you contact a tree service or firewood dealer or orchard owners you can ask for smaller pieces that can easily be cut on a 14 inch bandsaw