These are Walnut Wood cookies or also called rounds. A buddy has a really nice chain saw with a nice attachment for cutting slabs. He and I cut these today from a green walnut log that was 12-1/2 in diameter and 15 feet long. They were cut to a thickness of 2-1/2 inches since they were cut with a chainsaw. The 2-1/2 inch thickness will give me the extra 1/2 inch for leveling and sanding and make a nice 2 inch thick finished board.
Since these are green, they will go into a kiln for 30 to 40 days for drying. The slow drying process of the kiln will help prevent these from cracking and splitting. However, there still could be some cracking and splitting but it will be minimal.
These can be used for a cutting board or serving board. Many people today are using them as rustic wedding centerpiece, display, plate charger, candle stand, flower stand, cupcake stand, cake stand, etc.. Once dry, each of these will get planned and then sanded from 80 grit to 600 grit. Depending on how they are going to be used will determine the type of final finish.
I hope everyone is enjoying the new year. We are suppose to have temperatures around 4-5 degrees tonight with a mild wind from the west that will give us a wind chill of -2 degrees! How is your weather?
Enjoy your week!
Check out my handcrafted Ice Cream Scoops !! The perfect gift for anyone!
Round Cutting Boards with handle, Ambrosia Maple, Walnut and Cherry hardwood!
Michael's Woodcrafts 
they’re beautiful now. no doubt they’ll be beautiful with the end result, too. 🙂
yes, this walnut tree had a lot of character, dark color too!
They are gorgeous! I know you’re excited to have this beautiful wood to work with, Michael. Stay warm tonight! We may be a few degrees warmer, but the wind is howling already. Tomorrow is a good day to just stay inside. Best wishes, WG
Thank you! We had 3 degrees with a wind chill of -6 this morning, very cold!!
Brr! I’m putting on a pot of soup. I baked some loaves last night to keep things warm near where we sit. -6 is just obscene- I hear the Alaskans are complaining that we have their winter 😉 They can have it back! At least we have sunshine. Our cat is basking in it on the rug. Stay warm! WG
Those rounds are really cool, I think there would be many uses for them. Cold here too, tonight it’s going to be in the single digits also. Just took my senior pug outside and he could not tolerate it for more than a minute even with his coat on, stay warm my friend.
We had 3 degrees this morning… I can understand why he didn’t want to stay outside very long!! 🙂 Stay warm today!
Yummy, looks delicious. 😉
Look at all those future beautiful plate chargers—I’d like 4 🙂
Hugs Michael and happy wood!!!
a chilly cookie—if it’s 11 degrees here, you must be in the negative digits!!!
Stay warm!!!
Good morning Julie!! 🙂 I will let you know when they come out of the kiln! 3 degrees here this morning, too cold! Stay warm, big hugs!
Beautiful grain! I have no doubt they will be even more beautiful when you have finished the project.
Central Indiana is minus 2 degrees at 10:00 p.m., with a wind chill of minus 20. We have warnings that the wind chill will plunge to as much as minus 30 through late Thursday morning.
Lindy
Hi Lindy, wow, -2 and -20 wind chill, please be safe, stay inside where it’s warm! 🙂 We had 3 degrees with wind chill at -6
Lovely walnut cookies… look good enough to eat! 😉 It’s one of my favourite woods. Only just below freezing here, but a few really mild days are forecast.
I love the color of walnut. I don’t see it here in Australia but I remember it well. 🙂
Me too, but you have all the exotic woods and a lot of beautiful burls in Australia!! 🙂
Absolutely gorgeous wood. I can’t wait to see the finished products. Stay warm, it’s cold here too. The short walk to the bus stop this morning wasn’t pleasant, nor the standing still waiting for the bus!
You stay warm too, schools here are 3 hour delay to help with the children riding the bus. We had 3 degrees this morning!
I guess our 18 degrees this morning must be warm for you then!
Love your ideas! Received a last minute Xmas gift of a flat round slice of a tree. He put linseed oil on it – said it needed another application. It started to split right away since he did not give it time to dry. It is still cool looking so I am using it as a rustic looking charger. How long should he have let the piece of wood dry before applying the oil?
Thanks,
Mildred Bazarah
Hi Mildred, that was a nice Christmas gift!! 🙂 For every inch of thickness you should allow 30 days if air drying. If drying in a kiln, it will take a little less than half that time. When air drying, I usually cut cardboard rounds to cover then ends off the wood slice. Then tape together with masking tape and wrapping in a brown paper bag. These then go into a box of sawdust. When air drying, they tend to dry too fast causing the cracks and splitting. The cardboard, bag, etc. and placing then in a cool are will slow down the drying process. If you think the wood is still green, with a lot of moisture, then I would do the cardboard, wrap in paper bag and place in a cool area for a few weeks and see how they are doing. What kind of oil are you using? Mineral Oil? Let me know if you have any other questions, thanks Michael
Those rounds would make beautiful cheese boards or lazy susan’s. I am sure you were very excited to get them!
Yes, and I was very happy. My buddy owns a sawmill and he cut down the Walnut tree for someone and immediately called me. Being able to buy a green tree is nice. The tree had become infected with worms and was rotten in many places.
We have a neighbor that hired a company to take down a tree while he was at work. They cut down the wrong tree! A beautiful red maple. I have a couple of rounds drying naturally from it. The neighbor was sick. The employee was fired.
Oh no, I bet he wasn’t happy and was mad!! I know I would have been. On this post, see my comments to Mildred about how to dry them. They will crack and split open if they dry too fast. I would love to see pictures of them, do they have a lot of color?
They’ve been resting outside drying naturally. I’ll have to go and see how they are doing. They were beautiful when we first took our slice. It’s going to take a lot of work because we just had a chain saw. It cut pretty clean, but not perfect.
That’s good, hopefully they are doing good. Take a pic I would like to see them! What you should do is find a local woodshop that has a ‘drum sander’. I bet they would run them through their drum sander for you really cheap. That would get the perfectly flat, then you could sand them easier yourself. Sounds like a fun project! :)Stay warm!
Thanks for the information Michael! It’s a great idea. I will get a picture for you.
2 inch thick walnut should stand up to just about ant cutting or chopping anyone would do in a kitchen. At first I thought I saw some figuring like tiger maple in those slabs but I think it’s just saw marks.
We had -12 here this morning. They say it might warm up to 30 by next week. It’s going to seem downright balmy!
I am sure it is the chainsaw marks. -12 wow, we had the 3 degrees and tonight it is suppose to be 12. Suppose to warm up for us on Sunday!
I thought I was coming to see a recipe 🙂 These are great, Michael! I’ve actually seen something similar at a rustic wedding. Love them!
I have seen them at weddings too, taking a little risk that I will sell these but once people see them finished I should be able to! Stay warm Susan! 🙂
Great post. Very interesting to learn more about your work.
thank you Cynthia!
Hey Michael! Hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Years! You are so talented with wood, it always amazes us every time we stop by to visit! LOVE the handcrafted ice cream scoops – so beautiful!
We did have a lovely Christmas and New Years!! I hope you and your family did as well and your sister too!! Thank you so much for your kind comments!