Long Black Walnut Crotch

Welcome back to yet another slabbing day with Chad and Colton! Today we are cutting into the fifth walnut log that they brought over. 

Previously we cut a butt long, a crotch log, a putrid burl log, a burl crotch, and today we are cutting this double crotch monstrosity. It has one little limb (which is the size of a normal walnut tree) and then it splays into two crotches. We will be cutting to expose the crotch grain, which means we will have some kind of bullseye pattern from that little limb. This log is at least 12 feet long and maybe 28 inches in diameter, so I’m pretty excited to see what’s inside!

Here is a look of these first cuts, which are these weird little cookie, platter things. They are a fun oblong shape with a protrusion, which is from a pruning cut. 

We have some crotch figure as well as a bark inclusion in that split. You can also see where that limb was coming up through. 

Chad wanted a three and a quarter inch thickness on these, so we should get about five of them out of the log. This one is pretty much all clear grain. It’s measuring at 32 inches at one end, 23 inches where it narrows out here, and then 55 inches at the splay up top. 

Now we are getting into more interesting stuff. On this one, we are getting into the crotch figure with some ripples here and there. There is this kind of weird flattening out of the grain here in the middle, which has a certain chatoyance to it. 

Here is what I’ve been waiting for! Gorgeous. 

The total length on this is almost 14 feet, and it’s 66 inches across at the widest point. The crotch figure runs four feet, which is the zone I like. 

We are getting close to the pitch on this one, so it has some of the original limbs from the tree, but is otherwise fairly clear. This one also has some old ant colonies. It also has a big pruning cut, which gives a lot of interest to the slab. 

We are past the pith now, so we can see some of the original limbs that were pruned off at some point. There’s some figure around these. Very cool slabs. 

So this was a fun one! This was the fifth and final of the logs that Chad and Colton brought. The other logs they had were good, but this is more what I’m into. It’s a little bit crazier, a little wilder, even though it did have plenty of straight grain as well. Also, these are some crazy giant slabs! I’m really happy it worked out to have these logs here, and we were able to open them up and see all the weird things inside! 

Thank you, as always, for joining. I greatly appreciate it. If you have any questions or comments on the sawmill, please feel free to leave me a comment. As always, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. Until next time, happy woodworking!