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Old walnut trees - one downed and one to follow. Good for carpenters or cabinet makers?

ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
in Problem solving
We have inherited 2 very large, old and sickly walnut trees planted just inside our boundary.  One has fallen over in recent strong winds and the other is likely to follow so we need to get a chappy in to sort them out.

He will happily remove branches and cut those and the trunks in to firewood lengths but I just wondered if longer lengths would be of interest to craftsmen and is it worth the bother of hunting some out. 

Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Plato
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Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited January 2022
    It's a wondeful wood for carpentry.  I would say that it is absolutely worth getting a craftsman over to look at the tree before cutting it up. If all rotten there might be some still some useable.
  • Jenny_AsterJenny_Aster Posts: 945
    edited January 2022
    Do they give any walnuts?

    We discovered a great way to prepare walnuts for storing by accident. We had a huge walnut tree that split into two during the Great Storm of 1987, it was full of walnuts. We quickly gathered the walnut husks into plastic feed bags, the bags were left for a days in the shed, tbh we forgot about them.

    Eventually when we looked into the bags the husks had all gone slimy and black. Carefully not to get the walnut die on anything, the bags were emptied onto an old gravelled area. It was so easy to wash the slimy husks off the shell with a hosepipe without touching a single husk. The nuts was then put into a hessian sack and left for a while once again, this time for drying.

    It was so easy, the nuts lasted over Christmas and well into February, and we hardly got our hands blackened. We had walnuts with everything we could think of. 
    Trying to be the person my dog thinks I am! 

    Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Not that we've noticed but they are in the wilder corner of our plot which just gets cut back once a year and then left to whatever critters want to live there.   We do have a 40 year old walnut tree in another spot and that gives walnuts.  OH gathers them and I spread them on a rack in full sun to dry the shells and then he sits and cracks them whilst watching golf or rugby or cricket and I freeze them so they stay fresh and juicy and less bitter than ones left to sit too long. 
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Dunno.  Haven't needed to here.

    I have googled for cabinet makers in the Vendée and sent emails to a dozen or so in case any are interested.   We'll see.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • floraliesfloralies Posts: 2,718
    @Obelixx just seen your post, my son would most likely be very interested in the wood. have you some photos? 
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    edited January 2022
    Are you referring to the very un-pc couplet, @pansy2?

    If you don’t know it, I’ll leave it up to you to Google the missing two words

        A ————, a ————, a walnut tree,
        The more they’re beaten the better they be.
       

    Edit, sorry Pansy 2, I meant Pansy the First!
    Rutland, England
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    A new one on me.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I know that very old rhyme … I was told that the ‘beating’ improved the patterning in the wood grain. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    We had some trees some years ago that needed felling. We found a local wood turning person who came and look at the logs.
    He could see what certain logs could or could not be turned into.
    He gave us some fabulous pieces and very little price.
    It is always worth contacting a wood turner.
  • Jenny_AsterJenny_Aster Posts: 945
    pansyface said:
    Aren’t you supposed to beat walnut trees with chains or something to make them fruit?
    Old nursery rhyme... :#


    Trying to be the person my dog thinks I am! 

    Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
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