Black walnut
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Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Wood and Wood Preparation / Black walnut
Hi,
To everyone that is in the forums you provide lots of valuable information on everything and great tips around the problems that we all run into.
I need some help with black walnut. My wife’s co-worker is cutting down some black walnut and I have been able to get some. I think it might be two feet in diameter and eight feet long for the piece I want. It’s a good size tree. I was wondering how long it would need to dry if I store it in my house in the basement after cutting into boards. I live in Canada.
My wife wants a cabinet made from it.
Any help would be great,thanks.
I’ve never dried my own lumber, so fwiw, I’ve read that the “rule of thumb” is an inch of thickness takes a year — when stored outside. When stored inside in optimal conditions, that drops to about 3-4 months per inch of thickness. Of course, in both cases, it assumes you have properly stickered your boards and have proper air flow around them, your basement doesn’t flood, etc, etc. Matt Cremona is a YouTuber who does a lot of cutting trees into boards and drying his own boards both inside and in his basement, and those are his generalities.
Here’s a video where he discusses air drying your own black walnut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA81Ko0qZgg
But the only way to be sure is a moisture meter.
I forgot to mention that I have a dehumidifier in the basement that runs in the summer as the humidity can be awful sometimes.
Thanks for the reply and the link in it.
I will look into it.