Black Walnut

[Wood Doctor]

About Any

Good to hear from you Doc...
What Locust are you referring to?

Actually, I'm not sure it makes much difference. Honey locust works very well. I have a thornless variety growing in my front yard, and that smokes pork in grand style. Then I found in January a big thorny variety with thorns all the way down the trunk. I cleaved off the thorns with a sharp camp axe and processed the rest--almost 4 cords. Huge pieces, I had to cut several rounds in half to lift them onto the tailgate and haul them away.

I tried smokin' ribs with chunks of this tree and they turned out fabulous in my barrel cooker. I usually keep the temp at 240 to 250 F. If the wood is still a little green, it actually seems to work out better and last longer inside the barrel. Nice thing about both oak and locust is that they split rather easily, even when green. I cut the chunks into 7" to 9" lengths after splitting them down to about half the thickness of a firewood log.

 

[Hedgerow]

Walnut takes time to season; in my experience it takes at least a full year (or more) longer than oak before it comes into its own as firewood. Burn it too soon and all you’ll get is a lazy, cool flame with lots of ash left behind… wait on it to get good-‘n’-dry and the result isn’t bad firewood (but it still leaves a lot of ash). It isn’t so much the wood density like oak, but rather the relatively high quantities of “oils” (juglone, plumbagin and tannins) that take so long to “cure-out”… Three years seasoning ain’t any too long for walnut. Still, even fully seasoned it ain’t much good for grillin’ or smokin’ unless your taste buds have been destroyed somehow.



Contrary to popular belief, very few non-cultivated Black Walnut trees have substantial monetary value; In most parts of the country they are basically worthless. You couldn’t even pay one month college tuition with a couple walnut trees. The making of veneer is where the real money is, and then made only from totally clear, defect-free dark heartwood… defects and veneer do not mix. Yeah, walnut can be beautiful and expensive when used in furniture, but the expense isn’t because of the value of the wood, rather the expense is because only select pieces can (or should) be used… it takes some time to find enough select pieces and properly season them for a single piece of high-quality furniture. Walnut is used for gun stocks because it is heavy, easily shaped, takes checkering well, and looks decent when finished properly… but there ain’t any value in a straight-grained gun stock. High-dollar gun stocks are hand made from select crotches (where the grain figure is), choose the wrong crotch and the stock will snap into pieces the first time it’s put under stress (more high-dollar gun stocks are made from English Walnut because it tends to be stronger).

Black Walnut grows like weeds ‘round here… I’ve got maybe a dozen or more large ones in my woodlot, probably 3 or 4 dozen medium ones, and countless saplings and small trees. As an example of value, just before I moved into this place they were logging it (actually pulling logs out as I was moving furniture in)… they logged 28 trees from the woodlot, and not a single one was a walnut!

That's funny... Here in the Ozarks, the only trees anyone is interested in IS the walnut...
Sans the white oak for barrel staves...

 

[Wood Doctor]

Walnut vs. Cottonwood

Walnut generally provides a premium price for loggers. It should because skilled woodworkers love making furniture with it.

Of course, if nobody in the USA cares about good furniture, then walnut will command the same price as cottonwood. To me, that's absurd. opcorn:

 

[rarefish383]

Walnut produces a toxin called Juglone, I would'nt smoke with it. It is toxic to many plants. I know tomatoes are one, they won't grow undear a Walnut tree. They are recommended for planting around pastures because grass will grow well under them, but many other plants, like black berries won't. Google Juglone, plenty info avaliabe, Joe.

 

[haveawoody]

Might as well go to the casino Vs cutting then trying to head to the mill with walnut.
Those are about the odds of getting a useful walnut outside a natural forest.
Finding a mill that will take a single tree or a non forest tree are two more problems.
Even in forest location it's a 1 in 100 are useful, then removing 50 at once to make it worth the equiptment costs.

Almost every oak taken down is worth a return, so you can see why in general walnut is left as a weed tree quite often for oak or other sure return hardwoods.



Walnut is a poor wood to smoke with but the nut shells are excellent.

 

[hardpan]

Ok this is what we have learned. It is dark. It gives a good first impression but falls short of expectations. It will ruin our food. It doesn't produce much energy. It is toxic and will restrict many that try to grow beneath it. Basically it is of low value and we maybe should throw it in the trash pile. I can't vote for it.

 

[haveawoody]

It's ok firewood.
It's not oak but not box elder either.

Don't throw it out, throw it in the woodstove

 

[mga]

Ok this is what we have learned. It is dark. It gives a good first impression but falls short of expectations. It will ruin our food. It doesn't produce much energy. It is toxic and will restrict many that try to grow beneath it. Basically it is of low value and we maybe should throw it in the trash pile. I can't vote for it.

dry it out and burn it. you can impress your arborist-challenged friends when you tell them you burn black walnut.

way too many people think because they have a black walnut tree in their yard they can retire by selling it. big joke. it's only valuable to the few people who actually do woodworking these days, and they're getting harder to find.

and, as others have said. most mills don't want to touch it if it came from a back yard.

 

[Wood Doctor]

dry it out and burn it. you can impress your arborist-challenged friends when you tell them you burn black walnut.

way too many people think because they have a black walnut tree in their yard they can retire by selling it. big joke. it's only valuable to the few people who actually do woodworking these days, and they're getting harder to find.

and, as others have said. most mills don't want to touch it if it came from a back yard.

Most mills don't want to touch any tree that comes from a back yard. Would you if an imbedded case-hardened nail, lag screw, or drift pin wiped out a $1500 blade?

It's bad enough when I run into one of these with my Stihl MS 361 chainsaw.:bang: