Walnut for workbench top?

[Joe Shinall]

I posted a wood gloat about a month ago. I have about 15 pieces of walnut ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 inches thick. I have 2 pieces that are a lot of sapwood and was wondering about making a benchtop out of one or two of the pieces.

Now one thing is, this stuff is hard! I hit it with a hammer pretty good and no mark what so ever.

What are some thoughts on using this as a workbench top and should I use a slab or should I make a butcher block style top? One piece I believe is big enough to make a 24" x 6' x 2" thick top by itself as a slab.

[michael case]

Walnut is fairly hard, but it is also very dark. Light color woods make it generally easier to see what your doing.

[Glen Butler]

Walnut would certainly make a beautiful work bench, but walnut is quite soft when compared with a plethora of other woods. Check out the Jenka Hardness scale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test
You'll see walnut nearer the bottom.

I would suggest a closed grain and something less expensive for a workbench. There are better places to use such great slabs of walnut.

[John Morrison60]

I had an old walnut workbench made by my grandfather, and used by my father and I
for 70 years.
My father and grandfather always referred to it as the "black walnut workbench'"
I had a lot of fond sentimental attachment to it, but it was not a very good bench.
I ended up giving it to my sister's husband when I rebuilt my shop.
He took it all apart for a refurb, and discovered it was mainly poplar,
and other lower stature wood.
I have spent a lot of time chuckling about this, but I guess the joke was on me.

The moral of the story is: Save your walnut, make it out of poplar, and tell everyone it is walnut.

good luck
John

[Peter Quinn]

Two words. Opportunity cost. You can do lots of other things with big walnut slabs, like sell them, or make furniture. Walnut is not particularly hard, which may or may not be important when making a work bench depending on your perspective. If it came to you cheaply It could certainly make a decent work bench, but I'd rather source something inexpensive for the bench and save the premier cabinet grade wood for, well, fine cabinet work!

The bench is a tool that you will beat with impunity. COnsider that in your thoughts?

[Rich Engelhardt]

Go for it.

I look at it this way.

It's your workbench & since you already have it & you got it for a song & if looking at walnut gives you a measure of pleasure, then why not?

[Joe Shinall]

Go for it.

I look at it this way.

It's your workbench & since you already have it & you got it for a song & if looking at walnut gives you a measure of pleasure, then why not?

I like the way you think Rich. I have so much of it and probably won't use it all in the next 5 years so it won't kill me to use one piece of it for a top.

It's mostly sapwood so it's light in color so I don't have to worry about not being able to see stuff. Forget about the jenka scale, I bent a framing nail trying to drive into this stuff.

The bench I have now is just birch. Cheapie from Grizzly. So it's not like I'm downgrading

[Mike Cutler]

Joe

It would be a nice work bench.
I know a lot of folks worry about having the densest material they can, but in all reality, if a person is doing something that will dent or mar a workbench top, they ought to consider using a sacrificial piece of plywood or MDF.
A work bench needs to be flat, flat, flat, stable and heavy. If your walnut is flat go for it.

[johnny means]

I'm currently building my first nice workbench and am using walnut for the aprons and base.

Sure I could have used something less valuable, but why not spend a little more on something that I'm going to spend a lot of time with over the course of my career. I spend $90 a month on a YMCA I barely have time to use, thousands to own and insure a convertible that can only be driven occasionally. Work truck I paid a lot for sits for weeks at a time. Don't get me on the cost of smartphones and computers that are obsolete in 2 years.

But this new bench of mine, if all goes well, will be with me for 40+ hours a week for the next 40 years. Why not make it special?

[glenn bradley]

Walnut is fairly hard,

Walnut would certainly make a beautiful work bench, but walnut is quite soft

It is interesting how we consider things differently. Like "One-N-Glen", I consider walnut to be a softer wood in the realm of "hardwoods". IT isn't like pine but it isn't oak or ash either ;-) It is my favorite wood to work with. It is some stout stuff but I wouldn't consider it too hard for a workbench.

[Eiji Fuller]

+1 for what Johnny said. I want to make one out of curly, birdseye and wenge.

[Frank Drew]

Joe,

Mostly sapwood walnut is not considered a valuable commodity (at least not by me ), so if you feel it would be suitable for your workbench then that's what you should use.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Go for it.

I look at it this way.

It's your workbench & since you already have it & you got it for a song & if looking at walnut gives you a measure of pleasure, then why not?

+1. Tee it up. Think of all those years you will be using it, chuckling about us proles that made ours out of the same-old same-old.

[Lynn Floyd]

The walnut should make a good bench top. Considering that hard maple costs about the same and that the material cost you nothing, I would go for it. The top would probably be more stable made into a cutting board top, but the solid slab might have more charm. If it does cup a little, you can always flatten it with a hand plane. I've made tops with fall-off material, several different species together, pecan,walnut, and oak, into a cutting board pattern 2 1/2" thick with pleasing results. If the slab is premium quality walnut, I might think about it a while though.

[Ken Pywell]

Go for it.

I look at it this way.

It's your workbench & since you already have it & you got it for a song & if looking at walnut gives you a measure of pleasure, then why not?

Bingo! We have a winner!