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The Story of My Walnut

1K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  mkrok 
#1 ·
The Story of My Walnut

Lets get something straignt right now. I have been carrying this stuff around with me for over 15 years. Probobly close to 20. This story starts out in northern New Jersey about 15 + years ago.

During one of my "UP" periods with woodworking, I was looking through one of my local newspaper classifieds. This was back in the day before craigs list for all you younger jocks out there. Came across a small addvertisement "Walnut boards for sale" The ad had the name of the town, phone number and a guys name. I can't remember it so we will call him "George". It was a saturday morning, I had no family of my own 15 + years ago, so basicly nothing to do; I called George.

A very "experianced" man answeres the phone - "Yellow" said the voice. Right away I knew it had to be George. "How are you today sir ? I see you have some walnut boards for sale, still got them ?", I asked. "Yup", said George, "Got lots of em'" So George gives me his address. I put Bubba, my basset hound, in the truck to go and take a look. Stopped for cofee and was at Georges house in about 20 minutes. I know walnut is expensive so I though why not, lets see what he has.

George takes me to his garage and shows me about a dozen 4/4 boards all about 6 - 8 inches in width and 6 ' in length. All rough sawn so I had no idea what the grain looks like. Scratched some off with a hand plane and revealed som of the most beautiful figure I had ever seen. George says, "You can take these if you want, how much do you need ?" he asked. How much ? I thought, "How much you got ? ", I asked. "Let me show you", he answered.

The man starts to pull boards out of his garage, basement and barn. About 40 boards all rough and same dimensions. He said "Just want to get rid of these" He had some of them sitting between sawhorses used as a shelf. Takes me to the basement where he pulls out 4 pieces of 16 / 4 square posts about 5 feet long. LAst, he said, " I got some in the attic but I can't lift them; If you go up ther eand get them I'll give them to you for free." So I go up in the attic and find 4 slabs or 8/4, 12 - 16 inches wide and about 5 - 6 feet long.

Got it all out of his house and loaded:
40 - 4/4×6 x 60
5 - 16/4×4 x 48
6 - 8/4×14 x 60

All black Walnut, some of the 4/4 boards have beautiful spalting on them. These boards have been moved 3 times in NJ and made the trip to Florida. Then I moved them from my garage to my shop about 4 years ago where they are today. Since I never owned a jointer I was always afraid to cut it. Up until 2 weeks ago this wood was still uncut until I started to make some usable boards out of it. I started milling some of it up since I now have a jointer (got that off craigs list for 100 bucks) and using it sparingly on all my projects moving forward. Just about everyting will have a piece of my walnut in it for something.

So that is the story of my lifetime supply of walnut. Anybody know how many board feet that is? I guess I can calculate it my self.

The price for all of this - 50 bucks
 
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#3 ·
That's about 200 BdFt of walnut at about $.25 per BdFt at let's say 1990's dollars converted to today's dollars would be about let's say $1.00/BdFt. Yup, that's a steal. Unless you fail to use it all before you get too old. Then you'll be selling it at $1/BdFt to get it out of your house and losing money. So, I'll take some off your hands at $2/BdFt so you can make a decent profit. lol
 
#5 ·
Well That's nice to have, walnut here goes for 5 bucks a board foot.
I know one guy here that sells it for 2 bucks a board foot common stock.
I like walnut a lot, people seem to blend it a lot with maple. I've only
made one walnut step stool. I have maybe 10 bF in the basement,
don't know what to build with it yet. I could never hold on to that
much walnut for 15 yr, you are a patient man!!!
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the nice comments; I'm glad everyone liked the story. BTW Bob; patience has nothing to do wiith it; I was scared out of my mind to cut it fearing I would ruin a perfect board. So I just stated at it for 15 years. Now, I have started adding it to my projects.

I think I really do have a lifetime supply. Maybe I should call my lawyer and add it to my willl.
 
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