Design for garden bench

[John Brown]

I've been give given a couple of  slices of the truck of a walnut tree.

They are about 3 inches thick, 2ft wide edged with bark, mostly parallel and about 6 ft long

They've been cut at a saw mill and been stored inside for about 3 years

There's a bit of bow across the width but very few cracks

Can I use this wood for a garden bench without varnishing it and does anyone have a design I can copy.

Something not too modern but not rustic

If I need to use other wood,what wood would match

Thanks for any help

[just john]

Amongst the projects lying around, last year I had a couple of trees felled ready to mature, one oak, and one Walnut, I have a couple of (american) books on building garden furniture but not immediately to hand [:)], anyway lots on t'internet, heres one - http://www.buildeazy.com/park-bench-imp-1.html good luck[:D]

 

[John Brown]

Thanks Just John,

Just the sort of thing I was looking for.

I did look on the internet but did not see that website

I'm going to try making it, using the walnut for the arms, seat, back rest and the leg braces.

The rest I will do in oak.and if it looks wrong I'll paint the oak parts.

I'll get the saw mill to rough cut the stock sizes and let it dry out until the end of summer

The reason I asked about finishing the walnut is does it leach out colour when its damp

Cheers John

[Jonzjob]

Just as well you aren't a bit closer or I would sneak in a steal that lot [6] I wish that someone would donate something like that to me [blink]

I don't think there's any chance that any colour would come out. If I were doing it I would use a colourless teak type oil on the wood to stop it greying. It would need redoing each year, but I think it would be a shame to loose the lovely colouring of the wood.

That size,  wany edged, would also make a beautiful coffee table! And I could get some lovely large shallow bowls and platters out of it [6]

[John Brown]

Thanks for your comments Jonzjob,

My original idea was a coffee table, leaving the edge on, but as it dried it bowed across the width.

It would take forever to sand out the hump out and I can't have a table were the glasses fall over

I can do that without the any help from the table

If I could pass it under a Thickener, if that is what its called, that would work but I've only seen DIY ones that take timber about 8 inches wide

Cutting it into narrow pieces will reduce the need to sand out the humps

[Rob Roy]

Why not ask you local wood mill if they could put it through their machine? Being in the Limousin you can't be far from a mill!

[XLeblanc]

Hi,

Did you ever get your wood planed. I have a Robland D630 thicknesser.

If it helps I could put it through for you. It will plane 300mm thick by 630mm across so it should be fine.

I am near Azerables.

Cheers