mulch anyone?

Seeing walnut rounds like that never gets old with the contrast to what you expect the inside of a tree to look like.

It is like filleting a salmon and seeing the flesh color.
 
tod osier said:
Seeing walnut rounds like that never gets old with the contrast to what you expect the inside of a tree to look like.

It is like filleting a salmon and seeing the flesh color.
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Tod,
Here in Iowa, 95% of the trout one will catch are hatchery raised. It is always nice to carve into one and see one that has some color to the flesh. Then you know that particular fish has been feeding on a wild diet for a while, and will be oh so much more flavorful than it's freshly stocked hatchery brethren.

I have a mix of straight grain pieces and some with crotch wood. Always interesting just how the grain pattern will change as the bowl takes shape. The grain pattern can be a driving force in just where the shape of the bowl goes and when the cutting tools are exchanged for sandpaper and polish.
 
Huntindave McCann said:
tod osier said:
Seeing walnut rounds like that never gets old with the contrast to what you expect the inside of a tree to look like.

It is like filleting a salmon and seeing the flesh color.
Click to expand...

Tod,
Here in Iowa, 95% of the trout one will catch are hatchery raised. It is always nice to carve into one and see one that has some color to the flesh. Then you know that particular fish has been feeding on a wild diet for a while, and will be oh so much more flavorful than it's freshly stocked hatchery brethren.

I have a mix of straight grain pieces and some with crotch wood. Always interesting just how the grain pattern will change as the bowl takes shape. The grain pattern can be a driving force in just where the shape of the bowl goes and when the cutting tools are exchanged for sandpaper and polish.
Click to expand...

That wood is awesome, I don't have a lot of Black walnut, but enough in my stash for small projects. That and cherry, awesome to work with.

I hear you on the stockies, it is amazing how red a trout can be if eating the right thing. Here is the absolute darkest trout flesh I've run across (from high mountain lake where I think the trout ate a diet of 100% red twizzlers).

hKVXcR9.jpg

 
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Thats some amazing looking hardwood. Any big enough to get boards out of it?

Cant wait to see a few bowls turned out of it.
 
Those are gorgeous logs.

how much got turned into mulch? how big of a chipper do you have?
 
Dave

Around here the price of Walnut has skyrocketed to $8 a board foot. Your neighbor set you up with a nice supply. Looking forward to seeing what you make from those chunks.

Eric
 
Carl said:
Thats some amazing looking hardwood. Any big enough to get boards out of it?

Cant wait to see a few bowls turned out of it.
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Carl,
Everything was firewood length when I got it. It was so full of sap, one could stand the chunk on end and sap would literally run out the other end.
 
Dani said:
Those are gorgeous logs.

how much got turned into mulch? how big of a chipper do you have?
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Dani,

Don't have a chipper. The mulch was created with the chain saw when slitting the logs in half lengthwise. Cutting parallel to the grain produces long stringy shavings unlike the small chips one usually sees from cross cutting. I had 9 firewood logs, which yielded 18 bowl blanks. This generated a pile of stringy shavings approximately 3 foot by 4 foot by about 18 inches deep. Had I been cutting across the grain, the saw chips would have been more chip like and generated a much smaller pile.
 
Eric Patterson said:
Dave

Around here the price of Walnut has skyrocketed to $8 a board foot. Your neighbor set you up with a nice supply. Looking forward to seeing what you make from those chunks.

Eric
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Eric,
These were really too small to make into lumber. He took them down because he was tired of picking up walnuts every time he mowed. The trees were cut into firewood lengths on Saturday. I cut them into blanks on Sunday and the ends were already checking from drying overnight. Fortunately I was able to remove about an inch or two to remove the developing cracks. I then sealed the fresh cut end grain with hot, 200 degree, liquid paraffin. I guessing it will be four to five years of seasoning before I turn bowls from them.

Up to this point in time, every bowl I have turned, has been from fully dried stock. I may attempt "green" turning a couple blanks. Rough turn while wet, leaving stock on all surfaces. Wrap the rough turned bowl to slow the drying process and minimize warpage. Six months to a year later, finish turn the bowl. This would be a learning experience for me but I may give it a go.
 
He took them down because he was tired of picking up walnuts every time he mowed.
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Wow, that's a shame! I'd love to have that problem. There's a lot of people out there who would pay good money for those walnuts!
 
do not use walnut for mulch unless you dont want anything to grow there. it has a compound which inhibits the growth of many, but not all, other plants. just fyi
 
Steve Stevenson said:
do not use walnut for mulch unless you dont want anything to grow there. it has a compound which inhibits the growth of many, but not all, other plants. just fyi
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Steve,

Yes, no, maybe,,,,,,,, Link to more info. A short quote from the link ; "
Here?s what we know.
Various parts of walnut trees contain hydrojuglone which can transform into juglone in soil. The roots and husks have the highest concentration, leaves much less, and the wood has very little.
So, on a side note, since there?s so little hydrojuglone in the wood, using walnut leaves and wood chips as mulch shouldn?t be a problem. I certainly do it.
In laboratory studies, concentrated amounts of juglone given to seedlings in Petri dishes and other lab conditions have been shown to do harm. But, in a natural setting and backyard growing conditions, we don?t have good evidence that this happens."
[strike][/strike]
The whole addition where I live has many Walnut trees. My yard had three of them at one time. I've never had an issue with a garden being under and adjacent to the Walnut trees. I no longer have a garden but the grass does just fine.
 
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Thanks, my response was from personal experience. We have a property in north Alabama with many walnut trees. We have had to research what flowers and shrubs will live under them, the first go round before research was not successful. I know that the leaf litter is the major problem, I just wanted to make you and others aware of a potential problem. I've never used walnut chips as mulch so I just wanted to sound a possible alarm, if needed. Steve
 
Hi Dave,
Great mulch.
One thing I learned from a buddy, Walnut sawdust can kill a horse. Sawdust is used for bedding.
If there's walnut dust in it...that dust gets up into their feet and walnut decays and get's hot.
The only way a horse can "get away from it" is to get onto their "toes".
Once that starts to happen, it's very hard to stop it and that's the end of the horse.
...........Only offered because I'm sure most folks don't know about walnut sawdust and their effect on horses....probably off topic but I do that now and then.
Lou
 
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