: I have been asked to remove a very large Black Walnut tree from a womans lawn
: as she hates the thing for dropping all of those "ugly and
: bothersome"nuts all over the place, and was very happy to do so.My
: questions are,how would I go about drying the wood to prevent it from
: splitting and what are the potential uses in the boat building arena,
: particularly SOF, if any.Is black walnut suitable for skin boat frames or
: greenland paddles?

You potentially have a very valuable tree. It could range into the 10s of thousands of dollars. If you haven't cut it down yet, consider getting some help from a professional saw mill. They can extract the most value out of the tree.

I would not consider walnut my first choice for a SOF or a paddle, and I would not consider a SOF or paddle as my first choice to use up any walnut hanging around. It probably would make a decent paddle, but would be heavier than cedar.