walnut wood

Some people are sensitive to it, and it’s not good to use the sawdust from it for mulch, because it is poisonous to other plants. But most people have no ill effects from cutting and working with it.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

I agree, some people and plants are sensitive to it, as well as horses. But I love to use it.

If you try to plant a vegetable garden near a black walnut, it will not grow unless you really amend the soil. Ask me how I know.

I just had a small walnut log milled by some friends in exchange for a bit of labor at their yard. Not a lot of nice dark heartwood sadly, but I couldn’t stand to throw another stick of walnut in the woodstove. Sounds like the guy is just being obstinate – where does walnut lumber come from?

I’ve got couple of thousand board feet of walnut cut and drying right now. I guess I’m doomed… LOL Walnut sawdust is harmful to horses and shouldn’t be used for animal bedding. I’ve taken my sawdust and covered ground where I wanted to kill the weeds and grass and weeds keep right on growing through 6” of walnut sawdust. You might kill flowers and vegetables with it, but it doesn’t hurt grass and weeds.

-- Hal, Tennessee http://www.first285.com

Hal, It doesn’t seem to bother any of the plants in our flower beds either. But it will cause BIG problems for horses. Current advice is not to use any nut bearing hardwood shavings for horse bedding.

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm

The wood contains small amounts of a chemical called juglone. It is in higher concentration in the leaves and roots than in the sawdust. Even so, best not to put it in a garden or flower bed.

-- Wood-Mizer LT15

I have to say that that sawyer was being silly. I have sawn thousands of bd.ft. Of walnut over the years, used it in flat work and turned it. Oh yeah, burned it in the fireplace too. I am still kicking.
Maybe silly was too kind a description.
Of course with any wood dust it pays to wear a mask.

-- Barbara

He was joking ya

Sam Maloof used vast amounts of walnut until the age of 93. I guess he died young.

-- Oldworld, Fair Oaks, Ca

I have an Amish man bandsawing a bunch of walnut right now. Doesn’t seem to bother him any and at 17 cents a BF it seems like a good thing to do. I’ll take walnut anytime.

-- If we could hear the trees grow or the heart beat of every animal,the things that we pass off as 'ordinary' , then the roar of God’s creation would overwhelm us.