WOOD PROPERTIES AND UTILISATION POTENTIALS OF WALNUT WOOD (JUGLANS REGIA L.) GROWN IN GREECE

Walnut wood is regarded as the most valuable amongst woods of the temperate zone and suitable for a large number of products and uses such as veneers, furniture and interior joinery constructions, music instruments, carving, sport items, gun stocks and fore-ends, etc. At the present time, walnut plantations comprise about 36,3% of the total number of walnut trees grown in Greece, although, they constitute the main source of the walnut wood production in the country for the future. The variation of physical and mechanical properties of walnut wood between plantations and individually grown trees is normal and mostly not statistically different. The differences of the values of some wood properties were found more pronounced between walnut trees grown in different districts of Greece. Experimental sawing of logs from different parts of Greece gave lumber yield up to 70%, while experimental veneering afforded veneer yield up to 58.0% and 62.4% for dark coloured and light coloured veneers, respectively, depended on the diameter and the quality of the logs. The Greek walnut wood is of great demand in the European market and most of its production is exported to Italy in the form of unprocessed logs, especially veneer logs originated from Peloponnesus (e.g. Korinthos) that produce mainly light coloured veneers, and logs of large diameter originated from Thrace (e.g. Xanthi) which are considered to be of an excellent quality for the production of gun stocks and fore-ends.