Nothing like getting a phone call enquiring if you would like some walnut logs. As always when this question is put to you, the answer is “yes.”

Twenty minutes later when your buddy shows up with a F550 dump full of walnut logs that are over two feet in diameter, you know you have a good friend.

I now had a windfall load of walnut logs I could use as I saw fit.

Around this neighborhood, a variety of wood items often end up in a backyard bonfire. This walnut load was far too fine for it to meet that fate. Save the bonfire for discarded solstice trees.

So I had to make a plan to use the logs. I decided to set up shop in my front yard and make the wood suitable for use in future projects. My setup uses a chainsaw and a vice to make a flat cut into the log.

Milling, like all things, can throw you for a loop. The first cut I did was deep, planning on using the cut wood for bowls.

To my dismay, I hit an old run of fencing that had grown into the tree years ago. This is bad news for the chain of the chainsaw, which on a 36-inch bar involves lots of sharpening. The end result was a piece of walnut with staining from the metal fencing, adding character to the material.

The result of my afternoon project was unexpected but you have to roll with what you get. It’s important to keep in mind while milling and hitting snags that you’re milling a large walnut log in your front yard, so you have no right to complain about anything.

The outcome of the milling was some gorgeous pieces of walnut, a few with fencing running through it.

The staining from the metal in the wood can be seen in the pieces from the windfall walnut (bowl 5 in the gallery).

Cheers,

Ben