Ida blew down a few black walnut trees in a park near me and I'm going to try and get access to mill them with my chainsaw mill. The two that looked good were about 20" diameter, with a few 10"-12" branches coming off, and then a bunch of 6" branches.
I've milled Oak and Maple before, but that's all. And those were only slabs and beams. I'd like to get into woodworking, but I'm not really there yet, so I don't know what woodworkers would want out of this tree.
Right now my idea as to take 4 to 6 feet around all the crotches and slab them for coffee tables or desks or whatever. Then cut the trunk and large branches down to either 9 or 11 feet and make 1" boards.
1. Is this a good idea?
2. Should I quarter saw as much as I can? Or are wider boards more desirable?
3. Is there a grain orientation that works better for black walnut?
4. Should I try to do anything with the smaller branches? Is there value in 6" logs since a lot of it will be sap wood and center pith?
5. How tough is black walnut to mill? I've done sugar maple before, and that was pretty awful. Most of my experience has been white oak.
