I am not an expert with guns, nor with ammo. But I believe I recognize a bullet when I see one.

I was getting some sycamore and walnut ready for resawing, with all the boards destined for a bunch of small boxes I am making. I had already machined the boards on the jointer and on the planer; left to do was to square the ends, and trim to width prior to resawing. I have done this many times; it is easy, and totally routine. I started to cross cut the ends, to minimize the risk of surprises while resawing. I always square off the ends for resawing.

Routine stuff. Except this time I heard a loud noise as I cross-cut one of the walnut board ends; it was a muffled, but loud noise. It was muffled because I was wearing hearing protection. At the same time I saw a chunk of walnut fly off toward the back, and to the right of the table saw blade. I didn’t now what to make of it; I stopped everything, took a deep breath, and took my time to inspect things.

I did not find anything on the walnut chunk that flew off. It just seemed odd. Next I checked the blade; one of the carbide teeth had an irregular leading edge, but it was not chipped. So I checked the end of the board I was squaring. This is what I found:

Shop safety is not optional.

Fortunately, I was wearing goggles, to minimize the risk of eye injury in the event of flying debris at the table saw. This is the *one* time I was glad that I put on the goggles routinely. A close-up look shows the following, in the photo below – is it a 22-caliper bullet?

Bullet in walnut board.

I never found metal in any lumber I buy at the local saw mills. I bought a metal detector years ago, so I can inspect lumber I suspect of having nails or other metallic debris, such as the boards I kept from the old deck we removed recently. Those will get 100% inspection.

I will also conduct 100% inspection of the remaining 4/4 boards, and all the 8/4 boards I bought during my last trip to the saw mill.

— Al Navas