Evening out color of Walnut?

[Royce Meritt]

It seems the walnut at both of my local suppliers is suffering in quality lately. Particularly seeing much more sap wood in a given board. I understand that sap wood is not necessarily considered a defect in the grading of some hardwoods but I am having a hard time finding walnut that is less than 20%-25% sap wood per board. Is everyone else seeing the same thing? If I recall, I read a while back that quality and availability was going down nationwide.

Now my real question. Can one even out the color difference between the sap wood and heart wood in walnut? Thanks for your input!

[Pete Lamberty]

I have had the same problem as you do. I live just west of Chicago and I had a difficult time finding walnut boards that had small amounts of sap wood. I made a rocking chair out of walnut and I couldn't buy all of the walnut that I needed in one visit to the store. I had to go back numerous times over a few months in order to find decent boards. One time I went through their whole stack of walnut and left the store without buying anything. I just couldn't find an acceptable board. Even when I did buy something I had to work around the sap wood. I had a lot of waste when I made that chair.
Would staining the sap wood do any good? I would think that this would be very difficult to do. I have no other thoughts, sorry.

[Donnie Raines]

The best way to even out the color is for the lumber dealer to steam the lumber. An un -wanted side effect, however, is that the heartwood "dulls" down to a mikly brown color....rather then the dark tone walnut is known for.

As for dyeing...you could. However, the sap will be lighter then the hartwood almost no matter what...with exception being some serious blending of colors over the sap and hartwood's....and that would take some serious attention to detail.

As for the quailty...it depends are where you are at. I have lots of nice clear walnut....sure some have a little sap wood...but that can be dealt with.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

I had this same problem and was told to stain or dye the wood. It was too late for me but I would experiment with it and see how it goes. If you stain or dye then the color might stay darker longer as walnut gets lighter with age.

[Brad Olson]

You should be able to find some better clear walnut in your area. I'd keep looking for better quality-air dried if possible (I like the coloration much better on air dried). Some times a lumber dealer will get a bum load and it just sits around becaue no one wants it. Walnut is especially problematic, because the grading allows for more defects in Walnut that other woods

[Steve Swinton]

Royce,
I couldn't find consistently good quality walnut either and needed to build a changing table and crib for my grandson. I wound up using Peruvian Walnut which is not a true walnut but when finished looks great. You might want to look for some and consider it for your project.
Good luck,
Steve

[Jim Becker]

The challenge with walnut is the nature of how the tree most often grows..."un-straight". When you combine that with the lesser availablity of "big trees", you have a lot more sapwood appearing in material. Crooked trees that are smaller and more immature generate what you are seeing in the piles. Further, this is exactly why there are special rules for grading walnut. Otherwise, you'd be hard pressed to fine anything that could be graded FAS!

Where you live also affects this...if you are outside of the areas that product the material in quanities, you will have a lot more trouble having consistanly "wonderful" stock on your lumber supplier's racks. (Same goes for cherry...)

If the problem continues, you'll want to consider other species that either naturally can emulate the look of walnut or can pass at a glance, at least from a coloration standpoint, after finishing. Lyptus and willow, for example can be creative alternatives. There is an article on "transforming" material in the current issue of WOOD Magazine on page 84. (Feb/Mar 2005)

[Chris DeHut]

Hi Pete,

By chance have you been out to the Kirkland sawmill. They have a pretty good selection of Walnut there. If you have been there or if you do go there, don't just assume the only Walnut they have is what you will see on the second story level. In the back building, they had hundreds of board feet on the shelves the last time I was there. They are located in Kirkland (just east of Rockford) on 72.

Chris DeHut

I have had the same problem as you do. I live just west of Chicago and I had a difficult time finding walnut boards that had small amounts of sap wood. I made a rocking chair out of walnut and I couldn't buy all of the walnut that I needed in one visit to the store. I had to go back numerous times over a few months in order to find decent boards. One time I went through their whole stack of walnut and left the store without buying anything. I just couldn't find an acceptable board. Even when I did buy something I had to work around the sap wood. I had a lot of waste when I made that chair.
Would staining the sap wood do any good? I would think that this would be very difficult to do. I have no other thoughts, sorry.

[Chris DeHut]

Walnut and Cherry are tough woods to deal with in that regard. Cherry darkens over time and Walnut gets lighter. By just staining or dying the sap wood areas, you are setting yourself up for problems down the road. Many finishers today have been writing articles in the magazines on techniques to stain and dye the sap wood to match the heartwood. While it certainly will look good "at that moment in time", 10 years down the road, the wood's colors will change substantially. For example in Walnut, if the heartwood gets lighter, the stained area (over the sap wood) will remain dark, so you end up with the same problem in reverse.

Lately I have been working a lot using dyes and toners added to my finishes. I try not to just dye the sap wood, but rather the whole piece. Mixing the colors can be a pain, especially if you want a natural finish look. Once I get the dye process done, I then evaluate the piece further to see if I think it needs more "evening". If so, I then add universal tiniting colors to my top coats. I don't add much to the top coat, often times it only takes a few drops of the stuff to create a uniform coloring to a project. The dyes and tints that I have been working with are Transfast and Transtint.

Finishing is one of those tasks that can really drive a person crazy. Experimenting on scraps is a great way of "learning" without risking a big piece.

Chris DeHut

[Russ Massery]

Could you tell me more about the kirkland saw mill. prices, availability of species? I'm in N.W. Indiana seems like a hardwood black hole, here unless your willing to shell out big bucks for it. I looked up kirkland it really isn't that far...
You can send me P.M. with the info if you wish.
Russ