# Burning Black Walnut



## yooper08 (Oct 22, 2018)

I have a cord of black walnut I'm burning this year.  Just curious what others have experienced burning this stuff as I'm trying to figure out how this stuff burns.  I'm assuming there aren't too many who have burned it since it usually gets sold for lumber.

I know its low on the BTU chart, so I'm using it during the shoulder seasons, but it seems like it doesn't burn with much a flame and also seems hard to start and/or keep going (it's certainly dry enough).  Also lots of ash, probably due to the thicker bark than most other species.


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## bholler (Oct 22, 2018)

That has been my experience.  I will process it is i have to cut it for some reason but ibam not going to look for it.  The only stuff i wont use is elm.  And poplar has to really be in my way for me to cut it up.


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## Simonkenton (Oct 22, 2018)

I have burned tons of black walnut in the past 3 years.  Not hyperbole, I have burned more than 4,000 pounds of this stuff.
I have 39 acres of the NC mountains and I have hundreds of black walnut trees.  
They kill the garden also I whacked one to make a beautiful summer beam for my log cabin, lots of scrap from that big tree.

Black walnut is midway on the chart.  Not as good as oak lots better than pine. Makes decent coals.
I have found it to be very good firewood, easy to start makes nice flame in my big Oslo. Gonna light the big Norwegian stove up with pine kindling, and black walnut, tonight.

I am not messing with any more of it on purpose, if one is in my way I will cut it up and burn but I have access to Oak and Hickory, why use black walnut if you can use Hickory.


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## gzecc (Oct 22, 2018)

Everyone in the northeast have BW occasionally. Its rare for a BW to be purchased. It if fair firewood and makes a lot of ash IMO.


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## zig (Oct 22, 2018)

It's good firewood but yes, lots of ash. Also I heard the ash can kill plants if you put it in a garden so I scattered the ash on the lawn to kill the crabgrass. No such luck.


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## Simonkenton (Oct 23, 2018)

I wouldn't be surprised if the ash would kill plants because that black walnut is some freaky wood.
I worked long and hard to make a garden up here, planted a bunch of blueberry bushes that cost $25 each, had a bunch of potatoes in there, corn, a bunch of stuff.   And it all died.
A local guy was up here doing some back hoe work and he told me that the nearby black walnut tree had killed the garden.
So, that was the first black walnut to go into the wood stove.

Also, as I said I made a huge summerbeam for my log cabin addition, it is 24 feet long and 18 inches high.  I am sitting beneath it right now and I must say it is beautiful.
But, it was hard to make.  I cut it with my chainsaw.  Let it set in the carport 2 years to cure.
On construction day I brought it into the house under construction and it was time to sand it down.  Used a 7 inch disc grinder.
I put my helper on it, and I had him wear a respirator.  In fifteen minutes he was about to pass out.  I told him to go home, he was having an allergic reaction to that fine sawdust powder of the black walnut.  There are toxins in the wood.

So I had to sand that beam down by myself and it took about 8 hours total.  Of course I wore the respirator, the stuff made me a little sick but it didn't bother me as much as it did my helper.

Black walnut is a freaky tree with some powerful toxins in the wood.
As I said I have burned tons of it and never had a problem, breathing in a little smoke from the black walnut.


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## PA. Woodsman (Oct 23, 2018)

In my experience it has to be really dry and even then it still can charr more than burn with a nice flame, I would give it about a 7 or 7.5 out of 10. But years ago I cut some that had the bark off of it and was very solid and was a decent sized tree, and man did that one burn great, very lively and really threw the heat. I have seen that happen before, sometimes some trees in the same species burn better than others, but I will cut and burn it if it is available, I just don't go head over heels if I find it but I will take it.


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## yooper08 (Oct 23, 2018)

Thanks all, basically confirms what I've been noticing.  Simon, any tips on burning it?  Seems like I have to keep the air open more/longer.

As far as toxicity of the ashes, my understanding is that the juglone forms when oxidized and at least in terms of wood burning, it's stored in the bark.  So it's possible the toxicity is removed when its burned.


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## Simonkenton (Oct 23, 2018)

I don't know, the comment about "it will char more than burn with a nice flame."  I haven't had that problem, my black walnut like I said is easy to light and gives off a real nice flame in my Jotul Oslo.

Now my black walnut is very dry, go over to the adjacent thread and you will see what my badass woodshed will do even with hickory.  Under the thread "13 Percent in 8 Months."

So if will get hickory that dry that quick I'm sure the black walnut it really dry.


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## Dobish (Oct 23, 2018)

when my black walnut was wet, it took a little longer to light, and it would just char up. now that it is really dry, it lights easy, but it does create a lot of ash.


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## EJP1234 (Oct 23, 2018)

Id rank it with cherry, I dont turn it away. Has a real pretty blue/purple flame when you turn the air down to get secondaries. It does produce white fluffy ash.... i wouldnt say more ash, its just this ash doent crumble and compress into dust like other hardwoods.


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## Easy Livin’ 3000 (Oct 23, 2018)

yooper08 said:


> I have a cord of black walnut I'm burning this year.  Just curious what others have experienced burning this stuff as I'm trying to figure out how this stuff burns.  I'm assuming there aren't too many who have burned it since it usually gets sold for lumber.
> 
> I know its low on the BTU chart, so I'm using it during the shoulder seasons, but it seems like it doesn't burn with much a flame and also seems hard to start and/or keep going (it's certainly dry enough).  Also lots of ash, probably due to the thicker bark than most other species.


Burns fine, rots slow.  Have tons of it here and will for years. I take the bark off when I can, just all around better- drier, fewer bugs, less messy.  And generally the bark pops off after a season of drying.  I spread the ashes thin on the "lawn", I'm not taking chances of poisoning my garden.


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## Microduck17 (Oct 25, 2018)

I burned a bunch of it near the end of last season. It made heat and a good loadof big splits would leave me plenty of coals after being gone 10-12 hours.  The smoke seems to have a odd smell. Not bad just diffrent, sharper with a kind of tang to it.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk


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## Simonkenton (Oct 25, 2018)

Yeah, I know what you mean, the smoke has a kind of tang to it.  Doesn't smell bad, just different from the other wood.


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## gzecc (Oct 26, 2018)

I love the smell (smoke)of BW.


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## Slocum (Nov 4, 2018)

I cut a 30” BW on a fence row this summer. It had been dead so long the smallest limb on it was 4”. The rest had fallen off. I was shocked at how hard that wood was. The crotches worked my splitter over!! Some of them stopped my splitter. I don’t think that has ever happened. Moisture was 25% when I split. I will see how it burns next year


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Paulywalnut (Nov 7, 2018)

I burn it mixed with something else. It leaves the finest powdered ash in your stove. Like baby powder. If you split from huge rounds the heartwood is very dense and burns really nice. All this is totally seasoned. 2 to 3 years. I have walnut seasoned 10 years and still hard and dense..


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## Simonkenton (Nov 8, 2018)

Here is my black walnut summerbeam.  It is 24 feet long, 18 inches high and 8 inches thick.  The king post is also black walnut.
Very good work to work with, for the carpenter, except that the sawdust is toxic.


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## yooper08 (Nov 8, 2018)

Cool beam.



Simonkenton said:


> except that the sawdust is toxic.



I'm not so sure about that.  The juglone isn't toxic to humans and it's stored in the roots, leaves, nuts, and husks.  Saw away.
https://extension.umd.edu/learn/toxic-plant-profile-black-walnut


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## Ashful (Nov 8, 2018)

Simonkenton said:


> View attachment 232681
> 
> 
> Here is my black walnut summerbeam.  It is 24 feet long, 18 inches high and 8 inches thick.  The king post is also black walnut.
> Very good work to work with, for the carpenter, except that the sawdust is toxic.


Beautiful work there, Simon.  

But if BW sawdust was toxic, I’d be dead.  I’ve worked with plenty of black walnut, machining with router, table saw, etc.  I also processed and burned about 20 cords of it 2011 - 2014.  Several beams in my house are black walnut, not a particularly good beam material, but it’s what they had to clear on this property back when this house was built and then expanded  (1738-1779).


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## Simonkenton (Nov 8, 2018)

But, it is toxic.  I had a real good helper, we had to sand down that big beam using a 7 inch disc grinder.  This generates about 5 pounds a day of sawdust, real fine powder like flour.
My helper had a respirator on, that face mask with two circular filters on it costs about 30 bucks.
In fifteen minutes Adam was so sick he had to go sit down.  I told him to go home.
I had to sand it myself and it made me sick too.  Just not as sick as my helper.  Sanded that beam for about 8 hours.

Now, I sawed that giant beam from the big black walnut tree trunks with my big chainsaw, ripped the sides off of it and the kingpost too. Probably 3 hours of sawing.
No problem with that big wet sawdust but that fine powder from the dry beam made both of us sick.

For a comparison, we sanded the entire interior of the log cabin with the same sander. Same deal, respirator on.   The walls are 11 feet high, the cabin is 20 feet by 24 feet so there is ten times, twenty times as much wall surface as the surface area of the black walnut beam.
Forty hours or more of sanding the walls.   The logs are white pine.  No problem with that fine sawdust.


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## Ashful (Nov 8, 2018)

Interesting.  I wonder if it's toxicity, or allergy?  Working with red cedar gives me symptoms similar to hay fever and hives, I clearly have some sort of cedar allergy.  No issues with Black Walnut for me, but I don't do a ton of sanding, either.  When I do, it's usually less than 30 minutes with the RO sander and dust collector attached.  I'm also not doing this professionally, just a hobbyist woodworker and old house guy.


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## showrguy (Nov 8, 2018)

Simon is right, the sawdust is toxic to some anlmals..
Good friend of mine had a boarding stable for 30 years, they used sawdust for the stahls, if there was any black walnut in the sawdust it can kill a horse..


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## Simonkenton (Nov 8, 2018)

How about that, the sawdust would kill some of the horses.
When I sawed out that summerbeam, I was using the big Stihl for hours, and I would be covered in sawdust.  Of course this was big chainsaw sawdust from a green tree trunk, the sawdust was wet.   Didn't bother me a bit.

That is why I was so surprised two years later when that dry powder sawdust from the same tree hit me so hard and hit my helper even harder.    It is some freaky wood.


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## Simonkenton (Nov 8, 2018)

Here I am sanding the summerbeam.







Here is where I sawed out the summerbeam with the big Stihl.  I had to whack the sides out as soon as I got it out of the woods because it was too big to move with my home made log cart.
I put this beam in the carport and let it dry for 2 years it lost a lot more water weight, probably lost 100 pounds there in the carport.

This big beam was 19 feet long, 18 inches high and 8 inches thick.  The summerbeam is in two pieces, they are spliced together above the king post, the other part is 8 feet long.
I liked working with, sawing the black walnut and cutting the slots for the beams to fit in to, I enjoyed sawing that huge timber out of the big trunk.

Only thing I didn't like was sanding it down.


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## jds015 (Nov 9, 2018)

I'll admit, I love the aroma of BW smoke almost as much as cherry.  I burn a decent amount of both and get decent heat.  Like others, it's not as good as oak and hickory and I have access to plenty of all of the above, but for a fire to knock the chill off and have a good smelling fire I like BW or cherry.


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## Paulywalnut (Nov 10, 2018)

Pressure Treated. Now that's toxic. I've never heard of BW being toxic to work with either. Toxic usually means more than making you feel sick. Maybe an allergy symptom.


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## gzecc (Nov 11, 2018)

jds015 said:


> I'll admit, I love the aroma of BW smoke almost as much as cherry.  I burn a decent amount of both and get decent heat.  Like others, it's not as good as oak and hickory and I have access to plenty of all of the above, but for a fire to knock the chill off and have a good smelling fire I like BW or cherry.


Definitely one of my favorite smelling woods (smoke).


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## Schipp (Nov 13, 2018)

Beautiful beam!!
  I burnt BW one year! Split easy with sharp edges! 
 I thot it burnt well, although kind’ve quick relative to Oak or Black Locust!
 Interesting about BW having some toxicity to it!
 I spread ashes around a lot of my trees and it always seemed to me that they didn’t do as well as I thot they should! Even years later, my Weepin Willows seemed stunted and not growing like they should!  (May be my imagination)
  Also interestin, I just found out, that soakin Black Walnut hulls in moonshine will get rid of parasites!
 (A friend of mine just did this and noticed parasites in his poop fer two or three weeks!) ☺️


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## Paulywalnut (Nov 13, 2018)

Schipp said:


> Beautiful beam!!
> I burnt BW one year! Split easy with sharp edges!
> I thot it burnt well, although kind’ve quick relative to Oak or Black Locust!
> Interesting about BW having some toxicity to it!
> ...


There's not a lot of plants or flowers that will grow under walnut trees


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## Simonkenton (Nov 13, 2018)

Thank you for the compliment on the beam.  I am real happy with the way it turned out. Took me two years and many, many hours.

Black walnut is some freaky wood.   My neighbor moved up here onto the mountain and he hired me to build his log cabin.  He was from New York.  We worked in the winter, and we worked in the spring and summer. Takes a long time.

But, in August, Tom got sick.  All kinds of really bad allergies, really anaphylactic reaction to something in the environment.
I am an old paramedic and I was checking Tom out we almost had to take him to the hospital.
He went to the doc the next day and got the tests. Tom was allergic to black walnut.  Our mountain is just covered up with black walnut.

But the sap in the fall didn't bother me at all.   So, I whacked all the black walnuts within 200 feet of his house, and that was about 90 of them.  Some of them, 25 inch diameter and 90 feet tall.  I am good with a chain saw.  Of course, some of 'em were 10 feet tall.

Didn't do any good Tom was still sick. Real sick. Lasted about a month.

Well then winter came along and Tom got OK again and we finished the house.  But Tom had had it, he moved out the next summer, back to Manhatten, and he sold the house.  That is a damn nice house too and Tom hated to leave but he got run out by black walnut.
Tom said, "I live in Manhatten and if the GD black walnut fumes are blowing in from the east, they have to cross 3,000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean.

God Forbid if we had used black walnut beams in Tom's house, and he had sanded that down.  It probably would have killed him.  I mean, b/p zero,  pulse zero.   Some freaky wood.


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## Ashful (Nov 13, 2018)

Paulywalnut said:


> There's not a lot of plants or flowers that will grow under walnut trees



That’s not true.  There are a lot of things that will grow under black walnut.  If you don’t believe me, I’ll try to get a photo of some of the hundred odd plants, shrubs, trees and flowers I have growing under BW in my own yard.  There are some things that don’t like juglone, but it’s a gross exaggeration to say there’s not much that will grow under them.


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## ct01r (Nov 14, 2018)

Some plants are more tolerant than others.  We had tomatoes growing out of our compost pile under a walnut tree; till it got a soaking rain.  Then they withered up and died.  I used to plant impatience (the flower, not the spouse) under walnut trees, and the flowers thrived.  Our grass is pretty nice under the trees, too; the "chemicals" from the tree wash out and kills most of the weeds.  Once you get out from the drip line, you see dandelions and crabgrass.  Curt


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## Ashful (Nov 14, 2018)

Yeah, tomato is one of the plants known to be sensitive to BW toxicity, along with asparagus, pepper, and eggplant.  I also had to avoid putting Norway Spruce under my BW, when I planted 50 of them in my back yard.  But the Cypress, Hemlock, and Arborvitae all do just fine under BW.  Same with my fruit trees, cherry, pear, and peach, they’re all just fine under BW.

There are a few things that don’t like BW, but the list of things that are completely tolerant of juglone is much longer than the list of things sensitive to it.  I was just taking issue with the “not many things grow under”, it’s just an exaggeration of the fact that a few popular plantings are sensitive to BW.

http://www.mortonarb.org/trees-plan...re-care/plants-tolerant-black-walnut-toxicity


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## walhondingnashua (Nov 14, 2018)

Black Walnut are allelopathic.  Their leaves, nut shells and other debris that fall off they release a toxin into the soil.  This helps them keep other plants from growing very well within the area of their roots.  These toxins stay in the sawdust and the wood.  I have never heard of them being toxic to animals like Buckeye or Black Cherry, but that doesn't mean its not true.


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## Paulywalnut (Nov 14, 2018)

Ashful said:


> Yeah, tomato is one of the plants known to be sensitive to BW toxicity, along with asparagus, pepper, and eggplant.  I also had to avoid putting Norway Spruce under my BW, when I planted 50 of them in my back yard.  But the Cypress, Hemlock, and Arborvitae all do just fine under BW.  Same with my fruit trees, cherry, pear, and peach, they’re all just fine under BW.
> 
> There are a few things that don’t like BW, but the list of things that are completely tolerant of juglone is much longer than the list of things sensitive to it.  I was just taking issue with the “not many things grow under”, it’s just an exaggeration of the fact that a few popular plantings are sensitive to BW.
> 
> http://www.mortonarb.org/trees-plan...re-care/plants-tolerant-black-walnut-toxicity


I believe you. Rhododendrons, hydrangea, hosta, zinnias, and bee balm do horribly. I have at least 50 walnut trees. 
I was generalizing, not trying to start an argument.


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## Ashful (Nov 14, 2018)

Paulywalnut said:


> I believe you. Rhododendrons, hydrangea, hosta, zinnias, and bee balm do horribly. I have at least 50 walnut trees.
> I was generalizing, not trying to start an argument.



We are in the same boat.  I have almost as many Walnuts as you.  Fall clean-up is fun.


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## ct01r (Nov 15, 2018)

Ashful, don't tell me that you use your tractor and those "rolly things" to pick up walnuts.  WOW, that's a humbling experience.  We only have half a dozen trees, and pick them up by hand.  I can't imagine what you and Paulywalnut go through in the fall.  Curt


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## Ashful (Nov 15, 2018)

ct01r said:


> Ashful, don't tell me that you use your tractor and those "rolly things" to pick up walnuts.  WOW, that's a humbling experience.  We only have half a dozen trees, and pick them up by hand.  I can't imagine what you and Paulywalnut go through in the fall.  Curt



Yeah.  After raking them by hand my first year here, which would take me almost one full day of each weekend during October, I had to find a better solution.  Those harvesters absolutely suck, they’re are the shittiest design you could imagine, and they’re insanely expensive for what they are, but I haven’t found a better solution.  I’ve been telling myself for years that I should take the picker wheels off of these assemblies and build my own more robust frames and baskets, but other projects always prevail.

I will often pick up a full pickup truck load of walnuts in a single day, several times each fall.  I don’t know exactly how many mature walnut trees I have in my yard, and it seems to be a few less after each major storm (I lost my five largest in Hurricane Sandy) but there’s probably about 40 mature walnuts left.


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## edyit (Nov 15, 2018)

Ashful said:


> I will often pick up a full pickup truck load of walnuts in a single day, several times each fall.



what do you do with them all? are they edible, like the walnuts you buy in the store? we don't have any near us so i'm curious


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## Dobish (Nov 15, 2018)

i found a handful of black walnut trees dead and fallen in my back yard while i was wandering around yesterday. i also found a lot of other types of trees that I have no idea what they are. Very thorny, so I thought locust, but I could not find any leaves....

I also threw a few chunk of BW into the stove last night for good measure.


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## jetsam (Nov 15, 2018)

bholler said:


> That has been my experience.  I will process it is i have to cut it for some reason but ibam not going to look for it.  The only stuff i wont use is elm.  And poplar has to really be in my way for me to cut it up.



I grew up splitting elm by hand.  It is a great way to learn interesting new swear words, and to learn how many wedges you need (answer: Always one more than you actually have because the #$#$ elm won't give them back).

I now suspect that the older generations saved the elm for the kids to keep us out of their hair for extended periods of time...

The one redeeming feature of elm is that if you catch it on a -30°F day, it will suddenly make you feel like Superman instead of Wimpy.


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## jetsam (Nov 15, 2018)

edyit said:


> what do you do with them all? are they edible, like the walnuts you buy in the store? we don't have any near us so i'm curious



Yes, they're edible, but they are messy. The green flesh turns into a black goo that you could probably use for ink, and the shells are very hard.


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## Simonkenton (Nov 15, 2018)

We bought 8 blueberry bushes, cost $25 each, and planted them in the garden. Along with potatoes and corn. I put a hundred hours of work into that garden and big bags of peat moss cow manure etc. Rented a roto tiller.  Lots of money and work.
Everything died except the pole beans.  Pole beans flourished.

Also take it from me, DO NOT park your car under a black walnut tree in autumn, the nuts will make a big dent in the metal.
Makes a real loud noise.


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## Paulywalnut (Nov 15, 2018)

Ashful said:


> We are in the same boat.  I have almost as many Walnuts as you.  Fall clean-up is fun.
> 
> View attachment 233360


Nice tractor. I'm a John Deere guy also. I let all the walnuts fall and then deal with them. Some in the wooded area I let the squirrels deal with them


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## Paulywalnut (Nov 15, 2018)

jetsam said:


> Yes, they're edible, but they are messy. The green flesh turns into a black goo that you could probably use for ink, and the shells are very hard.
> 
> View attachment 233396


i make owls from the split ones. Kids think they're funny.


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## Paulywalnut (Nov 15, 2018)

ct01r said:


> Ashful, don't tell me that you use your tractor and those "rolly things" to pick up walnuts.  WOW, that's a humbling experience.  We only have half a dozen trees, and pick them up by hand.  I can't imagine what you and Paulywalnut go through in the fall.  Curt


I've tried almost every gadget. I just take my time and rake them into piles since I've retired and have plenty of time. Good exercise.


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## Ashful (Nov 15, 2018)

edyit said:


> what do you do with them all? are they edible, like the walnuts you buy in the store? we don't have any near us so i'm curious



Like jetsam said, they’re edible, but too much work and mess to make it worth the effort.  So, I buy walnuts at the store, while I’m dumping mine into holes in the woods.  To make eating them practical, you’d want to harvest every day or second day, before they start to rot on the ground.

And yes, jetsam, they make dye out of walnut husks.  One of the oldest indelible dyes in the world, I think.  Used in some furniture stains.  If you ever step on a rotting walnut and then walk into your house, that stain will be on the carpet forever.  DAMHIKT


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## jetsam (Nov 15, 2018)

Ashful said:


> Like jetsam said, they’re edible, but too much work and mess to make it worth the effort.  So, I buy walnuts at the store, while I’m dumping mine into holes in the woods.  To make eating them practical, you’d want to harvest every day or second day, before they start to rot on the ground.
> 
> And yes, jetsam, they make dye out of walnut husks.  One of the oldest indelible dyes in the world, I think.  Used in some furniture stains.  If you ever step on a rotting walnut and then walk into your house, that stain will be on the carpet forever.  DAMHIKT



I believe that because I had black fingers for days at a time as a kid.


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## Paulywalnut (Nov 15, 2018)

Simonkenton said:


> We bought 8 blueberry bushes, cost $25 each, and planted them in the garden. Along with potatoes and corn. I put a hundred hours of work into that garden and big bags of peat moss cow manure etc. Rented a roto tiller.  Lots of money and work.
> Everything died except the pole beans.  Pole beans flourished.
> 
> Also take it from me, DO NOT park your car under a black walnut tree in autumn, the nuts will make a big dent in the metal.
> Makes a real loud noise.


If I could I would cut them all down. The last to get leaves and the first to drop them. Dirty, toxic, and messy. Really many are monsters that just the branches are near impossible to cut or trim. So they stay where they are. Only two are in the general vicinity of the house.


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## Ashful (Nov 15, 2018)

Paulywalnut said:


> If I could I would cut them all down. The last to get leaves and the first to drop them. Dirty, toxic, and messy. Really many are monsters that just the branches are near impossible to cut or trim. So they stay where they are. Only two are in the general vicinity of the house.


I'm surprised you don't lose them in storms.  I lost ten in just one year, between Irene and Sandy.

Yes, they have a very short leaf season, but I still find them to be very pretty trees.  I also like that there is zero leaf clean-up, by comparison my maples are a PITA.  Right now my too-soggy lawn is covered in several inches of wet matted maple leaves, under four inches of snow.  The walnut leaves all blew away as they fell, back in late September / early October.


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## ct01r (Nov 16, 2018)

Over the years, we've had a few farmers that would buy walnuts, then they sell them to a candy company.  You don't make much, but at least there's a place to get rid of them.  I'd get the kids to help me pick them up and they'd split $10-20 a pickup load 3-4 times each fall.  Nice way to introduce them to the working side of life.  Now I either dump them in the back field (as far away as possible), or let them dry out and burn them.  They actually burn surprisingly well if they're dry.  Curt


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## walhondingnashua (Nov 16, 2018)

Neighbor has a steel porch roof with no paneling under it.  Sounds like a 9mm every time one of those things hits his roof.  Roof looks like a golf ball with all the dents in it.


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## jetsam (Nov 16, 2018)

ct01r said:


> Over the years, we've had a few farmers that would buy walnuts, then they sell them to a candy company.  You don't make much, but at least there's a place to get rid of them.  I'd get the kids to help me pick them up and they'd split $10-20 a pickup load 3-4 times each fall.  Nice way to introduce them to the working side of life.  Now I either dump them in the back field (as far away as possible), or let them dry out and burn them.  They actually burn surprisingly well if they're dry.  Curt



One time I decided to save up a big box of them until they were dry so I didn't have to deal with that rind.  I got back to it after they were black and dry.

It turns out that the inside of the nut dries out just about as fast as the outside; there was not any meat left in there!


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## yooper08 (Nov 21, 2018)

With all the ash from the BW, I will say the one benefit is that it keeps the coals for a long time. Last night I loaded it up at 8:40 to last only 4-5 hours so I could reload before bed. Fell asleep before then. Went to start it up this morning at 8:00, felt the stove and it was still warm (temped at about 100). Dug the coals out from under the ash and got her going again.


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## Hogwildz (Nov 24, 2018)

Medium heat, and a shitton of ash.


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## Paulywalnut (Dec 12, 2018)

Ashful said:


> I'm surprised you don't lose them in storms.  I lost ten in just one year, between Irene and Sandy.
> 
> Yes, they have a very short leaf season, but I still find them to be very pretty trees.  I also like that there is zero leaf clean-up, by comparison my maples are a PITA.  Right now my too-soggy lawn is covered in several inches of wet matted maple leaves, under four inches of snow.  The walnut leaves all blew away as they fell, back in late September / early October.


I’ve lost three or four in many years. Mostly branches dying and falling


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## walhondingnashua (Jan 3, 2019)

I've been burning a lot of very dry walnut the last few weeks and I am impressed with how it keeps the coals as well.  I have had my best start ups in 3 years by putting some walnut in before bed.


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## paulnlee (Jan 3, 2019)

Many moons ago while visiting wife's auntnuncle in Aldrich Mo. she brought back a potato sack of walnuts and put it in the shed. After that winter they were all gone. Thanks to the squirrels I have 30' ers all over


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## Dobish (Jan 3, 2019)

i burned a bunch of it in the firepit on new years day. Mainly just twigs and dead branches...


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## yooper08 (Jan 3, 2019)

walhondingnashua said:


> I've been burning a lot of very dry walnut the last few weeks and I am impressed with how it keeps the coals as well.  I have had my best start ups in 3 years by putting some walnut in before bed.



Agreed, which is putting me in a pickle on how to use the rest of it.  Do I use it throughout winter during the day and use the other hardwoods at night, use it for overnighters and save the good stuff for the day, or pause for shoulder season?  Or, just mix it in?


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## Simonkenton (Jan 3, 2019)

"Many moons ago while visiting wife's auntnuncle in Aldrich Mo. she brought back a potato sack of walnuts and put it in the shed. After that winter they were all gone. Thanks to the squirrels I have 30' ers all over."

Yes!  My house is in a forest on top of a mountain in North Carolina.  Black walnut trees all over the place.
But, in 1925, my place was a corn field.  The local farmer lived down at the bottom of the mountain near the creek, but his corn fields were on the somewhat flat ridge on top of the mountain.  His daughter Ms. Marlor still lived in the old farm house when I moved up here 22 years ago, and she told me about picking corn in 1925 where my house now stands.

After WW2, 1/3 the population of Madison County moved to Detroit to work "the line."  And the farming operations stopped. Old Dad and Ms. Marlor still lived in the house by the creek.  And the forest took over the corn fields.
So how the hell did walnuts get 300 feet up the steep mountain to grow where my house is?  Squirrels.  Boy they love to bury those nuts.
And I count the growth rings on all the walnuts I have whacked, they all started growing in 1949, 1952 etc.
Thank you squirrels, good job!  Otherwise all I would have is maples and poplar with one or two oak.


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## Kevin Weis (Jan 4, 2019)

yooper08 said:


> Agreed, which is putting me in a pickle on how to use the rest of it.  Do I use it throughout winter during the day and use the other hardwoods at night, use it for overnighters and save the good stuff for the day, or pause for shoulder season?  Or, just mix it in?[/QUO



Seems to burn fast for me, but have not tried to incorporate it into overnight burns yet.  Worth it to experiment though.


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## Simonkenton (Jan 4, 2019)

I have not found it to be the best for overnight burns.  Mediocre, and I have burned tons of black walnut.
I save oak, hickory, or locust for the overnight burns.


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## Ashful (Jan 4, 2019)

Simonkenton said:


> I have not found it to be the best for overnight burns.  Mediocre, and I have burned tons of black walnut.
> I save oak, hickory, or locust for the overnight burns.



Agreed.  I burned almost 100% black walnut in 2011 - 2014, and it beats softwoods, but it’s one of the poorer hardwoods I’ve burned.  I wouldn’t seek it out, but when Irene and Sandy bring them down in my own back yard...

Somewhere on this forum, there’s a photo of a monster black walnut tree that fell right onto my wood stacks.  It must have had 80 feet of straight trunk, roughly 24 - 30 inch diameter.


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## Kevin Weis (Jan 4, 2019)

Ashful said:


> Agreed.  I burned almost 100% black walnut in 2011 - 2014, and it beats softwoods, but it’s one of the poorer hardwoods I’ve burned.  I wouldn’t seek it out, but when Irene and Sandy bring them down in my own back yard...
> 
> Somewhere on this forum, there’s a photo of a monster black walnut tree that fell right onto my wood stacks.  It must have had 80 feet of straight trunk, roughly 24 - 30 inch diameter.



Another 6" diameter would be veneer, big$$$$$


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## Ashful (Jan 4, 2019)

Kevin Weis said:


> Another 6" diameter would be veneer, big$$$$$


You know, reading Al Gore's Internet, you'd think so.  But several neighbors called mills after Sandy rolled thru, and they were all turned down.  It seems that unless you can fill a full log truck or three, it's just not worth their time to even send the truck to your location.  Also, they're leery about even touching any yard tree, too many issues with hitting unseen objects within, like ceramic wiring insulators and other hardware.


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## yooper08 (Jan 4, 2019)

Simonkenton said:


> I have not found it to be the best for overnight burns.  Mediocre, and I have burned tons of black walnut.
> I save oak, hickory, or locust for the overnight burns.



Agree. I don’t need a lot of heat from the stove at night, so putting in some BW E-W has given me plenty of coals to go again in the morning, when I really want the heat. My stove is essentially in my office so my heat demands are kind of flipped from most people.


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## Kevin Weis (Jan 5, 2019)

Back in colonial times Wanuts were  usually referred to as "bushes" not trees.   They are also the most lightning prone tree and were recommended to be planted near homes to act as a natural lightning rod.  At least until Ben Franklin came along and did his thing on Lightning rods.


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## Ashful (Jan 6, 2019)

Kevin Weis said:


> Back in colonial times Wanuts were  usually referred to as "bushes" not trees.   They are also the most lightning prone tree and were recommended to be planted near homes to act as a natural lightning rod.  At least until Ben Franklin came along and did his thing on Lightning rods.


Interesting.  In that case, my house is surrounded on the south and east by 80 foot tall "bushes".


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## Kevin Weis (Jan 6, 2019)

I'm thinking bushes or trees were identified as one or the other based on the shape of they're crown back then not by height as they mostly are now.


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