Walnut or Walnut Look Alike???

[Jim VanBramer]

I'm in the process of putting in a very dark walnut hardwood floor, and I need to start thinking about the baseboard. We want to put in one that's about 1" wide by 3-4" tall, with some sort of a profile milled into it. What I'm trying to figure out is whether or not there is another, cheaper wood out there that when stained to match would look like the flooring. Or should I even be thinking along these lines, or just bite the bullet and get the real thing? Even if I get walnut it's going to have to be stained too. Let me hear your thoughts on this ... Thanks.

Jim

[Larry Fox]

If you have gone to all the trouble and expense to put in a walnut floor, paying the additional cost of walnut baseboard to finish the job seems like an easy choice to me.

Another option would be to put in some white baseboard as the contrast might look nice.

[Tom Cowie]

You can use Butternut if it is available and if your going to stain it dark.

ButternutIndex.jpg

I don't think it will save any $ and it may be easier to just get the walnut. The wood is very similar to work with,

Tom

[Jamie Buxton]

In my area, nobody stocks walnut moldings. Millworks will happily custom-mill it for you, but nobody stocks it. Millworks, of course, charge a set-up fee. Unless you're doing a whole house with this baseboard, the set-up fee increases the per-foot cost significantly. Another way to look at the situation is that the cost of the lumber isn't a big part of the cost of the finished baseboard, so it won't save you much money to try to use a cheap substitute.

[Al Killian]

Poplar is easy to stain to match walunt and all mills have it ready with many profiles.

[Jim Becker]

Use the walnut. Walnut gets lighter over time and you'll want your baseboards to do the same if your intention is to match them.

[Jim VanBramer]

Thanks guys ... as always there's good advice from the ranks!

[Jim Kountz]

Use the walnut. Walnut gets lighter over time.

Jim, funny you should mention that, I always experienced the same thing with Walnut until recently I saw a vanity I did for a customer about two years ago and it got darker with age. Weird huh? I used a poly finish and prepped as usual but the thing just keeps getting darker. Do you think it could have anything to do with the way the wood was cut? This was just flat sawn not quartered or anything. Also there is a window right beside the vanity. I wonder if others have had this happen too??

[Gary Breckenridge]

It might seem a bit odd but I'd give maple a look. It might be an interesting contrast. And if I wasn't happy with that I'd bite the bullet and pay for the custom milled walnut; stained popular never looks exactly the same and stained butternut is too soft.

[richard poitras]

Jim here is a earlier post that I posted … this wood looks just like black walnut .. good luck with your search.



RoastedBirch? Has anyone ever worked with any of this new wood we had a speaker come into our wood workers gild (Midland Woodworker’s Association)and talk about different kinds of wood and products (more of a sales presentation for his company products) and I was just wondering how well it was to work with and if it had any draw backs and such… in looking at the wood it looked really impressive and really rich in color but before I tried some I thought I’d ask if anybody had a chance to use it? And what your thoughts were. The sales guy didn’t have a lot of knowledge about it as it was new to his company as well .. One thing is it is cheap enough and looks great … here are two sites to look at product about the wood if you are not familiar with it …
http://www.alibaba.com/catalog/11445931/Roasted_Hardwood_Flooring_Made_By_Roasted_Hardwood .html

http://www.curiouswoods.com/wood--Roasted-Hardwood-Mix-of-Soft-Maple-Yellow-Birch--RH.html

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Richard Poitras Saginaw, Mi.

[Adam Grills]

Jim K- I have to agree

I have never used walnut where it gets lighter with age. Everything I have done gets darker like cherry does. Infact I have a walnut writers type desk with curly maple drawer in the front that was built approx 1880 and the walnut is quite dark- finished or unfinished (underside) parts of the piece.

Adam