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Posted by D Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 02:19:33 :
In Reply to: OT, Day away from the PW... Gun stcok, Fancy Black Walnut posted by ChrisCase [76.212.215.55] on Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 01:29:21 :
I'm still slowly using some black walnut that my great grandfather planted on the family place in Oregon. One big tree blew over in a wind storm in the '60s. I was barely old enough to remember my grandpa taking it to Tronson's mill just down the road to have it cut into rough 3"x9" slabs, and then my dad took it to a box factory in Seattle to have the slabs made into 3/4" and 2x2" finished boards. We've used them for various things over the years, some wastefully at first, like shelves. I still have half of one of the big slabs left -- one that I found in my grandpa's barn after he died -- and I like the idea of making a gun stock out of it. Maybe when I'm old and have lots of time for sanding... Some of that wood has amazing figuring to it. If I take the time to sand it through all the grits down to 600 and put nice rubbed oil finish or good varnish on it, it looks three dimensional. It's kind of nice to know the history of a particular piece of wood like that. I even remember us all sitting around at Thanksgiving cracking black walnuts from the trees that didn't blow over and picking out the nut meat that my grandma would use in her Christmas baking. That was sure a lot of work. Beautiful wood, but tough nuts to crack.