Hello, My families property is being unfortunately sold and logged. There’s a black walnut that has great sentimental value to me. Do you think this walnut will have good enough wood for a gunstock or two. It was planted in 1968ish in western Washington. Is there any particular way it should be cut and stored? Any resources that deals with this? Best time of year to cut? Anyone who does this? This is new to me but I would love to make two custom stocks for my brother and I from the place we grew up. Thank you for any suggestions. I can’t figure out how to post pictures yet but it is 16” x 48” of perfection before it starts to branch out. Thank you!


-Jared

are you saying that the trunk of this tree is 16" in diameter and that the branches start 48" from the ground?

What size (diameter) are the branches?

If your answer to vapodog's post is affirmative, then you may have 5 or 6 bookshelves. Really small for a gunstock. The best stuff in that tree may lie below. Good luck with the nostalgia.
Stephen

I think you "might" get two stock out of such a 16"x48" tree cut properly?? but maybe not adn the color might be bland.The tree is too young for sure. ..best to have a gun stock wood master look it over and let him lay out the cuts and give you an answer hands on. Its usually best to put the tree in a lake for some time then take it out and dry it. Some say you can tell good black walnut by taking a coreing out of the root and smelling it, the good stuff smells like dog poop! I didn't believe that at first but it does stink.. Walnut for gunstocks is a science unto itself and can't be learned overnight.

Black walnut isn't my choice of wood as I prefer Turkish or Russian soft shell..but it would make some nice pistol grips if it wouldn't make rifle stocks..so that might be an option for you and your brother..

If all else fails make a couple of fishing poles out of it!

My brother lives in central Oregon and has been buying walnut trees and cutting them for decades. He focuses on thin shell walnut (also known as English, French, Turkish, etc.). He buys trees that were planted in the late 1800s through the early 1900s and digs out the root ball BEFORE falling. He ends up with some nice stock blanks and lots of furniture lumber. All depends on the tree and the cutter.

The raw lumber is sealed on the ends, stickered and drys for a decade or so in his basement shop storage area. It is then further reduced into blanks or finished lumber. I made 30' of book shelves for my office/den and the stuff is beautiful. I also have a few blanks from trees he cut.

mr. wamuley: I understand sentimental value well. I'm no expert, but we do have a bandsaw mill and have done a little cutting. Finding someone with such a mill is a plus: the blade thickness is much thinner than a circle saw. I believe that a one-piece stock could be feasible. You only need a finished thickness of 2-1/4- 2 1/2" and you have more than enough length. IF you give it a try, I would immediately dip or paint the ends with hot wax to deal with the potential cracking. If you don't, I can promise you the ends will crack badly. The likelihood of having great grain contrast or lots of figure is very small, but it sounds like this is not important to you. You have to remember that many of the folks on this site are primarily interested in the fanciest sticks of wood vs. just a good stable working rifle stock. With black walnut, the sap wood (the outer part of the log) is very light, while the inner portion, or heart wood is the darker wood typically seen in black walnut. The sapwood, while not as desireable, is usable if only a small portion of the stock. The rule of thumb for air-drying hardwood to get it down to furniture grade lumber is 1 year per inch of thickness. Furniture grade lumber is in the neighborhood of 6-7% moisture content. Here in the midwest, you can air-dry it for years and it will never get lower than probably 12-13% if left outside. There are lots of wood folks who have moisture meters than will check a piece of wood for you. There's lot of good u-tubes on how to air-dry lumber. Well, that's my 2 cents: probably many on this site have more expertise than I, but I wish you well. I think the sentimental value of a stock like this will far outweight all other factors.