To start with the trees need to be bigger than most folks realize... Small trees do not make decent blanks. Further, trees grown in production-style "groves" tend to be tall and straight... and totally lacking in figure. It is what the furniture makers want for consistent color and grain to minimize matching while running large groups of identical furniture parts.
Savage gave lots of good advice, but there are a couple points to refine. Walnut is not made bland by kiln-drying, but rather by the steaming most mills run it through to relax tensions in the wood and make the colors uniform, again for production furniture making.
The whole concept of kiln-drying is not to speed up the drying process, but rather to slow it. Wood left in the open will lose too much surface water, too fast and the wet, full-size inner wood will prevent the outer wood from shrinking, setting up intense stresses.
Understanding where the good figure comes from help you assess what you actually have on your stumps. It is not always easy to visiualize... art
Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
