American Chestnut Slabs


wtnhighlander

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Please see original post by @Oregon Woodworker, under 'The Wood' section:

Hello,
 

    This is my first post here.  I live in northwestern Oregon.   I have been a woodworker for about 8 years now.   I have made various furniture pieces and I am slowly but steadily learning more woodworking skills.  It seems that furniture with router inlay work has become one of my favorite things to do with wood.
 


    I have an Alaska sawmill (chainsaw) with 50" bar and so far I have milled Claro black walnut (the most common type of black walnut on the west coast), Pacific Juniper, Big leaf maple, red alder, and bitter cherry (a wild cherry native to Oregon).  
 


    My dad who was born and raised in Iowa used to tell me about how the American chestnut was the king of the forest in the midwest and east coast until an Asian chestnut blight wiped out almost all of it in the early 1900s.  Fortunately, pioneers brought American chestnut seedlings to the west coast where it is not affected by the blight.  There is an old ranch near where I live with a grove of 20+ large American chestnut trees.  I sent samples of the leaves and branches to the American Chestnut Foundation and they confirmed that the trees are American chestnut, and not an Asian hybrid.  I have also sent them chestnuts which they are using in their orchards to try and develop a blight resistant American chestnut.
 


    Three years ago one of the large trees blew down in a winter storm, and the ranch owner let me mill it into slabs.  The slabs and large cookies from the stump have been stacked and stickered (ends painted) going on three years.  My woodworking is primarily in black walnut and big leaf maple and I have no plans for the chestnut slabs.  Here in Oregon there is little to no market for American chestnut; people do not have an historic attachment to it here like they do in its former range.   So I would like to sell it.  Please let me know if there are places in the midwest that would be interested in it.  I assume that slabs would be expensive to ship.  Here are some photos.

  https://www.woodtalkonline.com/topic/33300-i-have-large-american-chestnut-slabs/?do=findComment&comment=452611

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