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Thought this might be interesting to a few of the guys on here, and give me some useful info at the same time.

Here's an English Walnut tree on my parents farm. Diameter above the root swell is about 3 1/2 feet, don't know the age of the tree but I expect it's pretty old.

As you can see, the tree is on the way out, with dead branches etc. Thought we might as well get it milled before it actually dies and the wood becomes worthless. I'm meeting with a local sawmiller sometime this week which is why I have the below photos, taken from 4 angles around the tree.

So for those who know timber (and there seems be quite of bit of expertise around here) - if this was your tree, how would you mill it for gunstocks? Where would you place the blanks? Would you include any of the below-ground timber in the blank? Could you cut for feather figure in that first main branch without sacrificing the layout of blanks in the main trunk?

All a learning experience for me.