# Minimum diameter to use for lumber



## rosscleveland (Oct 7, 2014)

I have a black walnut tree that I need to remove. It's perfectly straight and keeps to about 1' diameter for 15'. Would it be large enough to get a couple pieces of lumber out of it or would it be too small?


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## Taderrickson (Mar 9, 2014)

For a tree that has a diameter of 12", you can figure on getting about 3 to 4 boards 8" wide and 8/4 thickness. IMO. 



rosscleveland said:


> I have a black walnut tree that I need to remove. It's perfectly straight and keeps to about 1' diameter for 15'. Would it be large enough to get a couple pieces of lumber out of it or would it be too small?


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## Alchymist (Jan 2, 2011)

Would yield usable lumber, finding someone to saw it might be a problem, especially if it's coming out of someone's yard.


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## Tom the Sawyer (Sep 4, 2012)

rosscleveland,

Make your considerations based on the average diameter of the small end of the log, inside the bark. The largest square that diameter would yield is approximately 70% of the diameter. A 12" diameter would yield a cant that would be a little over 8" square. 

If you need slightly wider boards you can get it 'live' sawn, or milled 'through and through, yielding slightly wider boards but with bark along some or all of the edges.

Another concern, most notable with walnut, is the proportion of heartwood to sapwood. A walnut that size may have sapwood that composes 3-5" of the diameter. Some people appreciate the distinct contrast between sapwood and heartwood, others hear 'walnut' and only consider the darker brown heartwood acceptable. 

If that is the case, you would get 70% of the heartwood diameter, perhaps less than 7" for the widest of the boards, most much narrower. The heartwood often 'wanders' a bit so you might expect to get shorter pieces of narrow widths which might be a deal-breaker if the sapwood is not acceptable.


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## Post Oakie (Aug 20, 2013)

Tom pretty much nailed it. If you can use a combination of heartwood and sapwood in your project, it would be worthwhile. Otherwise, probably not. If you can take the log to someone with a band saw mill, you could get some boards out of it. If you have a good-sized shop band saw, consider building a sled to saw boards, though length will be somewhat limited. The December 2014 issue of Woodcraft magazine has a photo of the set-up. It is always cool to be able to build a project out of lumber that you cut yourself.


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