European Walnut (Juglans regia) – quarter riven. Now how to proceed?
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- This topic has 7 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 2 months ago by Ian Hemphill.
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14 November 2017 at 3:19 pm #366249
So I have a trunk of a walnut tree that I have split in quarters (kind of) with wedges. It was 80+ inches long and about 14 inches in diameter.
When splitting it I realised that the tree had grown with quite a twist so my slabs don’t really come out straight.
I’m not sure how to proceed now since I have no plan yet what to make from it. Should I go on with riving the wood or do you guys think it would be better to mill it with a saw?Other than that, I’m really happy to have so much information at hand on here, I’m learning loads and heaps!
EDIT to add a picture of the trunk before it was cut to the length mentioned above (had a big knot on one end) and after the first split.
Ben[attachment file=366279]
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You must be logged in to view attached files.17 January 2018 at 3:30 pm #441136From the picture it seems to me that when you cut them to half, there would still be a fair amount of straight stock in those.. Seems to me you would still be able to use that for drawer fronts, door panels and the like.
I’m no sawyer, but if you rive them, isn’t the result supposed to be more stable than if done by a saw?
My thinking is that since there’s clearly so much twist/stress in this small tree, riving might reduce the amount of that twist and stress which ends up in the lumber you use for a project (maybe you could get some picture frames or as igor mentioned, drawer fronts, rails and stiles, etc).
18 January 2018 at 4:30 am #441929Relieving the wood of the stress sounds like an interesting idea to me, thank you! I hadn’t thought about that yet, I might just as well do it and see if it helps. Anyways, there indeed IS quite a bit of twist-free or only minimally twisted wood.
Really looking forward to working with it…I think your on the right track. I would suggest that you start thinking of your slabs as 3 section. You should be able to rive some straight grain wood from both ends of each slab. You will probably not be able to get an 80 inch board and in trying to do so would probably ruin the usable sections. Consider cutting the slab into 3 sections and then riving out what you can. You should be able to get some 20-30 inch straight grain section to use as rails or stiles in a project. As for the middle section, if you have access to a large band saw I would consider re-sawing it to 1/8 or less and gluing to a stable substrate (veneer). This could yield some wild figured panels for your rails and stiles. How you proceed will depend on what you want out of the wood and what tools you have access to. These are just my thoughts.
This is just a follow up with some pictures. The walnut pictured was cut from the farm I grew up on and was sort of special to me. It did not yield much in the way of long wide usable wood but I was able to adjust my plan based upon what I could get. This is the reason for the rail and stile inside the rail and stile. I was very pleased with the book matched side panels. They are the home made veneer that I referenced in my previous post.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.1 February 2018 at 12:18 pm #459556Wow, those look amazing, really beautiful! Any suggestions as to what to use for substrate? I could easily make panels from solid wood, do you think this might be the way to go? I feel I don’t want to use fabricated panels like chip-board, OSB or the likes.
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