What to do with our dead walnut tree?

January 27, 2007 3:32 AM

During a recent storm here in Belgium, the walnut tree in our garden was blown down. Now we have this huge (about 7 meters long) tree corpse in our garden. I could cut it into firewood, but it seems a waste of all that beautiful wood.

And we all loved that tree: in late spring our friends used unripe nuts to make port, in summer, we ate countless delicious meals and drank many bottles of fine wine in its shade, in early fall we ate its delicious nuts. I don’t want our relationship to end here. How insanely difficult would it be to turn the wood from the tree into furniture? Also, I snore like a pig. I heard playing the didgeridoo can help reduce snoring. So, maybe a walnut didgeridoo? Other ideas?

posted by Siberian Mist to Home & Garden (14 answers total)

Do you have access to a saw mill? You could mill the wood into boards and make a nice piece of furniture, table perhaps.

After Hurricane Katrina, my cousin milled all the downed timber on his property and rebuilt his house.

Take a small section, using a lathe, turn some bowls.

Walnut is such a beautiful wood, please don't just burn it!
posted by JujuB at 4:07 AM on January 27, 2007

Chainsaw mill. This is a great thing to do with a downed tree. I have a footstool I made from a chunk of downed elm thirty years ago, and people always comment on it. I used hand tools, and it looks a little Gumby, but I am really glad I have it.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:27 AM on January 27, 2007

Firewood? That is some very valuable wood there. I would find some way to mill it. The chainsaw mill looks promising. If there is a sawmill anywhere close to you perhaps they would buy the tree. If you could find something like this (portable saw mill service) around you that would be the easier. These guys pupport to have mills in Belgium.
posted by caddis at 4:59 AM on January 27, 2007

Best answer: I would find a local custom woodworker, and offer him the wood in exchange for something made out of it. Depends on how much wood it is, of course. But if the woodworker can take it, make you something out of 1/3 of the wood, and keep the 2/3 for other customers, it ought to be a good deal for both of you.
posted by jellicle at 5:48 AM on January 27, 2007

I second jellicle's idea. Any woodworker would kill to have access to an entire walnut tree.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:22 AM on January 27, 2007

I doubt you'll find any sawmill operations willing to cut a residential tree -- too high a likelihood it would contain old nails or other metal, that would destroy their expensive saws. You might find a private firm that would take the tree out, in exchange for the wood, as walnut can be valuable, but these kind of operators use mauls to split the trunk, and smaller, cheaper saws to cut the split chunks. Accordingly, their waste is much higher than commercial operators, but their risk of costly damage to equipment is significantly less. However, transporting, sawing up, drying, and milling this kind of wood is still a major project, so if you want to see something made of it, go to work on finding someone who might help. Although walnut is more rot resistant than other woods (it used to be preferred wood for making boardwalks), it isn't rot proof, and a log in contact with the ground for any length of time will draw insects and fungus.
posted by paulsc at 6:36 AM on January 27, 2007

Response by poster: Very interesting answers so far, everyone, thanks! One thing's for sure: burning it is out of the question, now.

A chainsaw mill would be nice, but it requires a huge chainsaw, which I do not have. Getting the tree to a saw mill - if I even manage to find one around here - would be a bit expensive, I think.

So yes, I'll give jellicle's idea a go.
posted by Siberian Mist at 6:38 AM on January 27, 2007

My family had a similar situaition (a walnut tree, even) several years ago. My father hired a guy with a portable sawmill operation and they milled it in the street in front of our house.

We stacked it all in the garage with several 1/8" shims between each layer of wood.

Good luck. I hope you have better luck getting furniture out of it than my father has (so far).
posted by clockwork at 9:24 AM on January 27, 2007

A portable bandsaw mill produces the least waste (very narrow kerf). I don't know about Belgium, but in the US, you should be able to find someone who will drive their mill to your tree, use a chainsaw to cut it into manageable pieces, and then send it through the mill.

It will then want to be stacked to air dry for as long as possible (like a year), and will take up space while it does so.

So, nth-ing the idea of finding a woodworker.

Oh! and read The Giving Tree

on preview, what clockwork said.
posted by misterbrandt at 3:19 PM on January 27, 2007

walnut makes beautiful flooring. a 7m tree might give you enough for a small room maybe? My math isnt that good. I'd love a dark walnut floor.
posted by daveyt at 3:34 PM on January 27, 2007

Shop it around. Someone came by and offered me 8k for my walnut tree.
posted by stormygrey at 5:47 PM on January 27, 2007

"Someone came by and offered me 8k for my walnut tree"
Where i grew up in Chicago, tree trimmer thieves would show up during the work day. The target trees were cut 2 feet above ground and below the first branch, then trunk and thieves gone leaving the mess. Walnuts were the most common target. (time 1973)
Sell that thing and buy a pony or something.
posted by blink_left at 7:02 PM on January 27, 2007

Response by poster: 8k, stormygrey? That's a lot of money, unless you're talking 8k of Vietnamese đồng. And I'm sure the kids would love a pony. Maybe I'm not so emotionally attached to that tree after all. Thanks again for the answers, everyone.
posted by Siberian Mist at 1:19 PM on January 28, 2007

Walnut makes nice guitars; sell it to a local luthier?
posted by primer_dimer at 2:58 AM on January 29, 2007