A Very Pleasant Surprise

I get most of my wood locally from trees blown down in storms and those removed by arborists. Some friends bring me wood and a local tree service brings me lots of logs. I found a local person who was selling a walnut tree that had already been cut down and cut into firewood size pieces. He accepted the price I offered and my son Nathan and I picked it up. It did not appear to be a high quality tree.

Green (freshly cut live trees) logs cut into firewood length pieces need to be turned immediately. We coated the ends with Anchorseal (a wax emulsion) to reduce the cracking but within days the sections were getting cracks. I was beginning to wish that I hadn’t made the purchase until I turned the first bowl.

When I turned the first bowl out of that walnut…Surprise! It was beautiful.

Curly Black Walnut with sapwood incursions and lots of color variation.

Needless to say I’m pleased with my purchase. I’ve turned 10 or 11 sections of this tree now and almost every one has curly figure and sapwood incursions. I’m getting 4 bowls per section by coring a smaller bowl from each half section.

My tree service friend brought me two nice cherry logs at about the same time as I got this walnut. I’ve turned a couple of bowls from one of the logs and the wood is curly and has lots of color variation. I must be doing something right. I hope this streak of good fortune is a long streak!