Walnut Desk Top

[Scoony]

A friend commissioned me to build a large desk for him and his wife. They wanted a black pipe base and a thick top. I brought them several wood samples and they decided on walnut even though it was $8.5 a bft for 8/4 which was over twice the cost of other woods.  The tops are 60 x 26 x 2 and 72 x 26 x 2. 


Most of the milling was done with power jointer and planer, but hand planes did a very important job.  My tailed jointer will make square edge, but not what I would consider a glue ready surface.

Wartime #7
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After glue up, The Stanley #5 and Bedrock #606 flattened a top in a matter of a few minutes. This is the 60" top. I started off with the #5, but quickly switch over to the 606 as the larger size helps out. 

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I still have the longer top to flatten. For me it is faster to get the glues up close, then flatten with hand planes, then fretting over a perfect glue up. 

Lots of folks would go to a sander of some sort to flatten a large panel, but I am not sure how they can keep a panel or top flat that way. 

Oh, and it's nice having a long bench that can handle these big pieces. Tip for bench builders, go for length over width.

[Greg Jones]

Looks good! Is the walnut kiln dried or air dried? I know of 2-3 sources of nice walnut in our area, but it’s all kiln dried. Would love to find a local source of air dried walnut as it just works so nice.

[Scoony]

Looks good! Is the walnut kiln dried or air dried? I know of 2-3 sources of nice walnut in our area, but it’s all kiln dried. Would love to find a local source of air dried walnut as it just works so nice.

It is kiln dried. I have used both air dried and kiln dried walnut and have never noticed the difference either in color, workability, or stability. I have some of both in the shop. Kiln dried and walnut that has been air dried for over 10 years. I can put them side by side and I bet no one here could tell the difference. I have used steamed kiln dried walnut once and did notice the sap wood darker than normal the the walnut an over-all grayer color, but none of the lumber guys around here steam their walnut. The lumber supplier, Bonesteel Mill in Southern Indiana, where I get my lumber uses mostly solar kilns.

Cherry is a little different. I avoid air dried cherry as it always seems less stable that kiln dried cherry.

[Bibliophile 13]

Looking good! That top must weigh a few pounds.

[Scoony]

Looking good!  That top must weigh a few pounds.

I am able to flip them over on the bench by my self, but for moving them around, help is needed.

Took a few minutes for me to realize that I could use the dogs on the Yost patternmaker vice in conjunction with the end vice for work holding. Funny how a solution can be right in front of us, but we often miss it at first.