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Black walnut for smoking wood?

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Sippi
Sippi Posts: 83
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
A neighbor has cut a black walnut tree to make room for a new house. Have any of you had experience using black walnut for smoking? Would appreciate your thoughts.
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Comments

  • Char-Woody
    Char-Woody Posts: 2,642
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    Sippi, I sure hope he saved the trunk for the veneer people..precious wood. Walnut can be used for smoking but its a bit stronger than pecan or hickory..so use it a bit sparingly till you adjust to your liking. Some have used the dry husks from the nuts, and again, it might be kinda strong from what I have heard..I never have used it. Worth a try tho...Let it air dry in your garage attic during the hot spring and summer for a few months. Cut off limb sections about 3 inches thick and several inches long. Use a hand saw, not a oildrenched chain saw blade..phew!
    Good luck..
    C~W[p]
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  • Fingers
    Fingers Posts: 37
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    Char-Woody,
    I have been wanting to try Black walnut for smoking also but have proceastinated (sp) due to the strong aroma that occurs when I cut some for a woodworking project.
    Like Sippi my neighbor two weeks ago cut down two large black walnut trees. He was cutting them up for fire wood when I saw him. Managed to save one log (10 ft X 14 in)
    it is at the mill now to be cut and dried. It is a shame to see something that beautiful used for fire wood.
    Fingers
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  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    Sippi,
    I would not use it...It is skanky and strong.
    If you DO use it, mix it 1/3 - 2/3rds with fruitwood to flavor it up.
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  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    Fingers, I too am a woodbutcher and had quite the same type experience a few years ago...one day an old farm truck showed up at my neighbor's and two guys threw off a HUGH pile of split firewood. Even from a distance I knew it was walnut. Make a long story short it was from the trunks of 3 walnut trees that the farmer had received money from a saw mill rep who had the trees cut from his woods but never came
    back for. After 3 years protected in a shed the farmer got ticked, had his son cut and split them and sold them to my neighbor for $300 total! Enough to make a grown man cry! [p][p]
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  • Fingers
    Fingers Posts: 37
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    one feral kat,
    I know how you feel. I may go and get a couple of the pieces that are not split and see if I can cut them into slabs that can be used for small projects. After paying a little over 100.00 for enough to make fruit bowls and matching candle sticks for my three daughters I hate to see any of it wasted.

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  • Kip
    Kip Posts: 87
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    one feral kat,
    While I understand your lament. Black Walnut trees are terribly messy. The outer limbs are weak and always falling. The nuts if ignored wreak your lawn(good for hitting with golf clubs) but if picked up have a black oily outer husk that stains your clothes and hands. I have one tree standing over of all things a greenhouse. No hardwood harvester wants to waste time with one tree so my only option is to hire a bonded lumberjack and have him remove the tree at my expense. I think at that point I'll be ready to burn all the wood. Hey I wonder if the nuts not the wood would smoke well???
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  • Char-Woody
    Char-Woody Posts: 2,642
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    Kip, now that I read your post, I think it was the hard dried inner nut shell that they used for smoking, not the green exterior. I agree..that stuff stinks. Only squirrlies can get past the smell.
    C~W

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  • Char-Woody
    Char-Woody Posts: 2,642
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    Fingers, and "wood" you believe, the most beautiful burl in in the lower root section and is either ground up or burned out of the ground. If one can get a dozer cheap its worth saving. Ever see a fancy gun stock or pistol grips?
    C~W

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  • Fingers
    Fingers Posts: 37
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    Char-Woody,
    To my knowlege I have never seen anything made from the burl other than pipes from briar.
    When I was in High school a limb fell off a walnut in our yard. A fellow that worked with my dad used it for the stocks on two flint lock rifles and one pistol he was making they turned out just beautiful.
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  • Char-Woody
    Char-Woody Posts: 2,642
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    Fingers, I have some red walnut that came from a local milled walnut tree(s) that they made the first County Courthouse siding out of in the 1850's here. Saving it for a project yet to be discovered. Maybe Q'tool handles :-)[p]C~W
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