Walnut slabs from storm damaged tree

I was in the right place at the right time earlier this summer and was given some walnut, I was also able to get it cut into slabs with a chanin saw now it is sitting and curing waiting, I do not have any specific plan for it other than two pieces that I want to use to make a stock for a flintlock rifle that I think I want to try and make someday.
sure is prety wood, I painted the ends and stacked it up with sticks inbetween and put a couple of straps around them to hold them there.  
It only cost me $75 and two pounds of fresh honey to get the slabs cut, I figure when the time is right I will come up with a project, my wife hinted a bench would be nice.

In the knife-making world, we call that a serious score.  Nice heartwood walnut like that makes excellent handle material. How thick are the slabs?

Clifford, what are your plans for those slabs?

They look very think so maybe benches? They look to think for tabletops and other things I can think of.

Or do you plan to make lots of smaller boards?

Those slabs are seriously beautiful!

Joshua States wrote:In the knife-making world, we call that a serious score.  Nice heartwood walnut like that makes excellent handle material. How thick are the slabs?

Yea that sure is a serious score for a bunch of knive handles for sure!
These are various thicknesses ranging from 5 quarters or 1 1/4 inch,  7 quarters 1 3/4 inch , 9 quarters 2 1/4 inch and 16 quarters  3 inches.

At the time that this oportunity came my  way I was set on getting a couple of pieces that would be suitable to make a flintlock rifle stock out of because I have been working on a piece of walnut pre cut for a stock and have it in my mind I can do one from scratch someday , what I had understood a decent starting thickness for blanks was 3 inches which alows for shrinkage and then gives plenty of room to to remove what does not need to be there.  When I talked to the man who had a setup to mill lumber using a chainsaw he said he would get me as much usable slabs as he could and this is what came out.
I had read that it takes quite a few years to cure lumber this think so I felt no pressure to hurry and get busy, some times I just go down there in the shade and sit on the stack and enjoy the smell of the wood and ponder what could come of these pieces.

My neighbor gave me pick of what was left over after the tree service guy took the huge pieces away so I went back to his wood yard and picked out two large pieces and he brought them over while he had the skid steer handy, these were quite heavy we estimated that the two pieces would be around 1500 pounds.

I have heard that good quality walnut stock blanks are hard to come up with if you want the full length that the early flintlocks have, the two that are narrow I believe these are what he thought I would like the best.

These are various thicknesses ranging from 5 quarters or 1 1/4 inch,  7 quarters 1 3/4 inch , 9 quarters 2 1/4 inch and 16 quarters  3 inches. I think I may make a bench out of the one of the thinner slabs but I do not know even how long they need to dry yet.
I do agree they are beautiful.

Anne Miller wrote:Clifford, what are your plans for those slabs?

They look very think so maybe benches? They look to think for tabletops and other things I can think of.

Or do you plan to make lots of smaller boards?

Those slabs are seriously beautiful!