Maybe the Best Time to Use That Special Piece of Lumber Is Now

An acquaintance of mine milled some walnut trees at his father’s home in Idaho and eventually got around to bringing a load back to the New York area. He was in the enviable position of having more lumber than he knew what to do with and sold me three of the slabs for a song. They were about 5 ft. long, 16 in. wide, and just over 2 in. thick. How much did he want? $40 a piece. He didn’t want more. He just wanted to share the bounty. As I drove off, he enthusiastically shouted, “Make something pretty!”

After years of woodworking, this was my first exposure to air-dried walnut. Having not been steamed, the wood had colors I wasn’t used to seeing in the lumber at my hardwood dealer—purples, blacks, grays, and, of course, a wide-range of rich browns. And being air-dried, it would be even more tool-friendly than its kiln-dried cousins. I was excited to put this wood to use and,…