Reduce Red huw in Black Walnut

[Kevin Haverty]

I purchased black walnut from two sources, and after planing found half the walnut darker with heavy red hues

How can I lighten the red hues to match the lighter dark walnut void of red?

Bleach then brown tint in the oil finish?

[Scott Holmes]

Walnut is one of the few woods that lightens with age and exposure to light. Black walnut will turn to a warm redish brown hue over time.

What are you building?

[Kevin Haverty]

Walnut is one of the few woods that lightens with age and exposure to light. Black walnut will turn to a warm redish brown hue over time.

What are you building?

Two Media Units

Do you think Bleaching the dark Walnut with Heavy red hues will help in making it more subtle?

[Philip Berman]

Have you put finish on both pieces to see if there's a difference? I'm in the process of doing bookcases to line a whole wall, the color of some of the wood is startlingly different, but when finish is applied (garnet shellac) it all looks uniform.

Philip

[Phil Thien]

Scott is right (of course), it can lighten and if exposed to sunlight a lot, will lighten a lot. And surprisingly fast.

But if the wood is from different trees, it can have a distinctly different look.

Now, in Sam Maloof's book, he mentioned working with air dried and kiln dried walnut. If you've seen the two side by side, you'd know how different they can look. I think Maloof said he doesn't prefer air dried like so many woodworkers seem to, he said he likes it all (I think). And he mentioned the difference in colors. BUT, he also said that once a finish is applied, the differences become far more subtle. He did say he has used both air and kiln dried on the same piece, with no ill effect.

What I've found is that applying a coat of Watco Danish Oil Dark Walnut to the entire piece does a fairly decent job of blending walnut form different trees. Not perfect, but it helps a lot.

The further advantage is that the Watco prevents from the wood bleaching too much.

So I would encourage you to take some samples of each of your batches and apply some finish and see how they look. Also try applying something like the Watco Danish Oil Dark Walnut to each, and see how they look. Finally, stick those samples in direct sunlight for a few days and check them again.

[Charles Neil]

https://www.thefinishingstore.com/la...-charles-neil/