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First of all, unless you have it kiln-dried, you're going to need to wait a couple of years for it to dry to where you can use it. I disagree that it will wear too quickly. Once you've finished the floor with something like poly or a penetrating oil-based finish like Waterlox, the wood fibers will stiffin and the wear will be on the finish, not the wood. I do agree that walnut is softer than oak or maple, and that will matter if you drop things on the floor. The key is getting a finish that is tough. Most flooring nowadays are finished with water-based polyurethane.
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Allan Hill
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(06-10-2018, 08:18 AM)Youngbuck Wrote: I'll be the odd man out here and say make your floor with it. Around here walnut grows like a weed and was common for building homes and outside utility stuff because of the rot resistance. Furniture was made from tulip poplar and painted. There's a restaurant in town that used locally sawn walnut to remodel, it looks wonderful and after fiveish years, has aged beautifully. My opinion, if you want your floors to look like wood but never get a stain, dent, scratch or need any maintenance, get pergo or whatever that other stuff is nowadays. Heck, the people with big money here pay mega bucks to put 150 year old pine floors in their brand new 5000 square foot homes. Summation of rant; if you want to use the walnut for the floors, do it. You'll get the satisfaction of an heirloom floor from your hand work. That restaurant I talked about earlier; he used plain old tung oil to finish everything from the floors to the tables. It has character but doesn't look abused by any means.
+1.
Black walnut is 78% of the hardness of Red Oak, and S. Yellow Pine is only 68% of the hardness of Black Walnut. Plenty of pine floors out there - and plenty of pine floors in homes 200+ years old. Popularity of woods used for flooring is more based on aesthetics (appearance) and availability than hardness and wear resistance. I've already weighed in with my opinion on wear resistance.
Janka Hardnesses:
Red Oak: 1290
Black Walnut: 1010
Cherry: 995
S. Yellow Pine: 690
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Allan Hill
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ok so it looks as though through a survey of responses that cabinets are where my efforts should be turned to. my next question is how thick should I mill the lumber. I was thinking milling each slab to 1" and letting 1/8" go to drying and another 1/8" go to sanding and planing but thats just my guess. Anyone have a better idea? also being a newbie I wouldn't even know where to begin as far as joining all the wood to make a cabinet.
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Yes mill to minimum of 1" to allow for kiln drying, surface planing and sanding to 3/4 for flooring or cabinet work
Steve
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WaterlooMark 02/9/2020
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06-11-2018, 10:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-11-2018, 11:00 PM by Hank Knight.)
I would mill it a heavy 1". If you are shooting for 3/4 dressed stock, you'll lose some if you mill the logs to 1". I'd rather lose a little bit to the planer than lose whole boards that ended up shy of 3/4 after they are dried and dressed.
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(06-11-2018, 10:59 PM)Hank Knight Wrote: I would mill it a heavy 1". If you are shooting for 3/4 dressed stock, you'll lose some if you mill the logs to 1". I'd rather lose a little bit to the planer than lose whole boards that ended up shy of 3/4 after they are dried and dressed.
+1
BIL & I had some logs milled several years ago. BIL told the sawyer he wanted most of it sawn to 1". The sawyer asked; "1" or 4/4?" There is a difference, at least for this particular guy. To him, 4/4 was a heavy 1".
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My friend who re-sawed trees for himself. father, brothers and me took down some walnut. He used the walnut fro trim in his house, Baseboards, door and window trim. so you can use it, but not for flooring.
Good luck with your walnut, hope it turns into furniture projects in the future
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We saw our 4/4 hardwoods at 1 1/8" rough and I can usually finish it to 7/8" which I prefer over 3/4" or 13/16". If you are going to make some ~1/2" thick panels for your cabinet doors then sawing some 8/4 (2 1/8" rough) might be the way to go, you can resaw the dry 8/4 into 3 half inch thicknesses.
I still like the floor idea though. The only real downside is the color: room will be a bit darker than an oak or maple floored room, but this can be used to great effect.
