Thread: Walnut Stock Build

Originally Posted by akaroa1

@PaulNZ did you water blast and mill the stump end right down into the roots ?
That's where the best figured wood lurks

Yep, at least as far as possible. I spent a whole afternoon on the millers yard with his waterblaster and a crowbar getting as much solidified dirt and stones out of the root ball as possible. We were pretty lucky with the timing - there was a lot of rot in the stump just below ground level but it hadn't propagated into the trunk yet. Probably why the tree was looking crook. No doubt we still lost some figured wood during the trimming process, and there's a bit more that is separated as smaller blocks (think 2-piece stocks) that we couldn't mill as part of the main slabs.