Walnut

[TXGunNut]

Not sure where to post this but I think the world's best walnut is or will become a BPCR so here goes: If someone had planted a bunch of walnut seeds when I was born would I have a chance to shoot a Sharps rifle with a stock made fom one of those trees before I died?

[Ickisrulz]

Yes, 35-50 years to get 15-20" slabs. (according to a Google search anyway.)

[StrawHat]

I doubt if even 50 years will give you enough wood to make a good stock. Maybe with American black walnut but that tends to be open pored and have a muddy grain. For a slow growth, hard shelled walnut, you need time to get good growth. Perhaps your grandkids will get to use that timber.

[JeffinNZ]

One of the greatest losses of WWI was the mass removal of walnut trees to build the desperately needed SMLE's. The thing was the guvmint compulsorily acquired all the wood and the growers, who had planted as future income from the firearms industry, did not replant.

[wv109323]

How long are you going to live? It would be possible ( maybe not optimal) with American Black Walnut. I am sure with a 50 ABW year old tree you could get a big enough blank out of it to make a stock with straight grain.
With that said, I understand the optimum Circassian Walnut trees grown in Europe and Asia and have an age of 150-200 years old. The optimum tree must die a natural death and then be harvested for gun stocks. Circassian Walnut is more dense them ABW,Harder than ABW and has a greater range of colors. The extra harness allows finer checkering with more lines per inch. The climate and soil conditions have a lot to do with the contrast and color of that wood.
As I understand it nearly all of the Circassian Walnut has been cut from Europe and most of the remaining Circassian walnut is in China. With Regret some of the outstanding stock material in the future will come from China.
FYI, Most of the walnut trees that were planted in Europe and Asia were planted as a food source. As strange as it sounds the belief was some 200-300 years ago that food that resembled an organ of the human body was good for that organ. The walnut Kernal was thought to resemble the human brain and the walnut was grown as "Brain Food". That lead to many Walnut farms and the planting of many of the walnut farms across Europe. Since that thought no longer exists there has not been a replanting of Walnut Trees in Europe and Asia. No one is going to plant walnut and wait 200 years to harvest it for gun stocks.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I ordered another 10 trees to plant this year and they have arrived. 5yo x 7 foot high trees won't even fit in the pickup! With the ground very damp from recent rain, this should be a great growing season :o:

This now gives me 53 in total, with 2 main varities. These new ones are juglans regia (European walnut) to compliment existing juglans negri (American black walnut)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/Walnut_Butt3.jpg

I'm growing these for timber, do I want optimum growth with plenty of water and fertilizer or control the growth so that the woods becomes close grained and hard.

My trees are 8 yo and grow about 12-15" in height per year so the mature height of about 90 ft will take about 100 years. I'll never see the benifet of the timber but my great-grandson just might :shock:

A feature of old walnut is the giant taproot much like a carrot where neutrients are stored for 5 months of the year during winter. Rootstock when properly dried and treated can give the best marble grain of any part of the tree.

[TXGunNut]

I'm too old to be planting small trees, just wondering when the trees that contributed to my collection of walnut & blue steel were planted. Another tragedy relating to hardwood is all the hardwood forests that were cleared and burned by American colonists for farmland.
Planting quality hardwood trees for future generations is a thoughtful and necessary thing. Thanks, BAW.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

They still clear hardwood forest for cropping in Australia, and the message is very slowly getting out there to the land owners.

Besides the walnut, I've planted about 2000 other varieties including red mahogany, rosewood, teak and silver ash to name a few. It is an interesting fact that 22acres of forest would support enough birds to eat their way through 30 ton of insects every year as most birds eat 30 to 70% of their own body weight every day!

[oldred]

I too have been planting black walnut here on my farm in Tennessee but at my age these will be for a future generation, a couple I planted back in 91' when I first bought the place are already more than 18" in diameter. I have a couple of massive walnut trees that I am sure would yield some beautiful wood but I would not cut those awesome trees for love nor money! I don't understand some people, the tree I cut the stock/forearm for my custom high wall came from a massive walnut that a guy cut down because it was "littering his yard" in the fall and when I happened upon it this idio......errr guy was cutting it up for firewood! He gave me what he had not already ruined and I now have several beautifully feathered blanks I cut from the crotch wood and quite a bit of nice straight and semi-fancy wood suitable for stocks and other use, enough to keep me busy for a while!

[DIRT Farmer]

When I was in collage, started in the Fall of '67 we, the forestry club planted a stand of grafted walnuts with the goal of making a saw log in 20 years. The trees planted in good river bottom soil most definatly made that. As for the wood qulity, I have no idea, the trees are still growing for the research project. When I was last at the plot some of the trees were massive.

[oldred]

Doesn't do much good to speed the growth with extra special growing conditions since the desirable heartwood will remain small in comparison to the rest of the tree. I have cut several walnut trees that were growing near a creek on my farm, very rich soil, plenty of moisture and in open unshaded area so these trees had grown really fast. They were a real disappointment as they were mostly sapwood and wide grained, meaning they were mostly white and relatively soft. By contrast the few trees I have seen from wooded areas were quite the opposite in that they were dense, close grained, much harder wood and were dark wood almost all the way to the bark. The trees were all in the 20" to 24" range but I am certain the wild woods grown trees were much older and were about the same size due to the lower growth and less than ideal (for rapid growth) growing conditions.

[canyon-ghost]

Black Walnut? Oh, I got those growing in the backyard. My sister and little nephew gave them to me. Now, they're about 10 feet tall. This is what they looked like 4 years ago (they've been there since they were 6" tall).

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx228/3rdshooter/2008BlackWalnut.jpg

[TreeKiller]

Most of the dark English hart wood for gun stocks come from trees less than 50 years old. Back then they planted black walnut seed and grafted them over to English. Some were grafted as high as 6 to 7ft. Most of these trees have been taken out of production and replaced with another virility. Know a guy that has 10,000+ blanks. Some of the slabs are 4 ft wide before he lays out the stock blanks.

[StrawHat]

...Most of the dark English hart wood for gun stocks come from trees less than 50 years old ... Some of the slabs are 4 ft wide before he lays out the stock blanks...

Are you saying an English walnut tree can produce a 4 foot slab in 50 years or less? Sorry, but I do not believe this can happen.

[waksupi]

I question that, too. I grew up in an area where walnut grows. I've been back to visit, and the trees definitely are no where near 4 foot through, after 50+ years. They were probably 20 inches through back then.

[oldred]

I have been around black walnut all my life and there is one at my old home place that I am positive is at least 75 years old and it's around 24 to maybe 28 inches, this tree is also growing within 20 feet of a stream. Not sure how fast English walnut or grafted walnut grows but I would imagine a 4 foot tree would be REALLY old, walnut grows fairly rapidly to about 18 inches or so the first 10 to 20 years then it slows considerably.

[felix]

Google Earth this:
Superior Plantation -- Clubb Creek Location
37°10'0.81"N 90° 0'47.23"W

I am one of 10 investors in this plantation. About 100 rows. Planted with acquired Black Walnut germinating nuts from MO, KY, TN, IN, IA in 1981. Hired college kids continuously to do the work and they are/were supervised by a couple of professional timber foresters. The nuts were interspersely planted with Russian Olive and/or Short Leaf Pine. Some of these bushes/trees are still seen because they have not been yet killed by the walnut producing sap. I have not been to the plantation in years, so I do not know how big the average tree is.

... felix