Have a friend who's neighbor had a big walnut tree hacked down. Neighbor was going to burn it or otherwise rudely dispose of it. Friend takes it and has it milled into planks. On advise from your's truly, I had him properly dry the planks. He dried them for about 16 months.

Decided he wanted to make a kitchen table out of it. Having little to no woodworking experience he sought and received tutorship from, again, yours truly. The planks were originally 1.75 by 14 by 8 feet. Had to split them down the middle so as to be able to run them across my joiner. Glued them back together and ran them through the planner. That was a pain in the buttocks!

This is the results of several months of off and on working on table.

Notice the two center pieces are book matched...cut down the center and flopped open like the center of a book.

Crushed turquoise inlay in the imperfections.

He's finishing it with TruOil.

It's hard to beat the Chocolate Wood for beauty and to think that tree was looking to be trashed.