Introduction - Questions about Walnut

[William McLellan]

Greetings all. This is my first post here. I am an advanced beginner woodworker from the southern tier of NY.

I am working on a walnut sofa table for my wife. This is my first time working with walnut. I had some boards delivered from one of the suppliers in PA and they looked good until I started to plane them. Whoa! lots of purple and yellow in the heartwood, some black and red too. Pretty interesting to look at but not what I had in mind.

My original plan was to apply BLO, orange shellac, wax. Now I would like to hear advice as to darkening the wood and possibly subduing some of the colors. Also wondering if I should fill the pores somehow before I begin finishing. Thank you!

[Jim Becker]

William, that's the natural color of walnut you are experiencing and many of us embrace it--I personally covet it in my walnut natural edge pieces. The walnut that you see that is "mono-color" has been steamed which removes the natural character, darkens the sapwood and lightens the heartwood. My best advise for you if you prefer an even color is to source walnut that has been steamed.

That said, you can certainly try work with dyes and shellac to even the tone, but be aware that walnut gets lighter over time, unlike many other woods that get darker. It get a lot more golden with exposure to UV and through oxidation.


For filling the grain, your shellac will contribute a lot to that through multiple applications and sanding back, but for the table top, you can use a paste-wood grain filler. This is usually applied with a rubberish "scraper" after a seal coat of shellac and then lightly sanded back once it's dry. Behlins is one brand.

[Carl Eyman]

William: I second what Jim said. As you are new to the Creek, Welcome and always believe what Jim says. He's one of the most revered gurus floating in the Creek.

However, read Jeff Jewitt's article in FWW some 18 months ago on coloring walnut. On request I'll pinpoint the article for you and you can find it in a library. It essentially said to use a dye made from Transtint liquid (brown mahogany, I think) to color the sapwood using an artist's brush to follow the line between light and dark, and then blend it together with an overall dye made from Golden Brown Transtint. I don't remember the proportions of dye to water.

If you decide to go this route, buy the dye from Jeff at Homestead Finishing. He'll probably answer the phone when you call. Even if he doesn't he'd probably call you back and you could ask him the proportions if you don't find the article. Or, alternatively, I could go up in the attic, dig out the article, and give you the specifics.

[Dennis Peacock]

William,

First of all Welcome to the Creek!!!! Gald to have ya onboard.
Walnut....like Jim stated, what you are seeing is the natural colors in the walnut. Jim and Carl have you headed in the right direction for your solution, so I won't add anything more to the confusion.

[William McLellan]

Thank you all. I decided to do some experimenting on scrap to see just how the wood would react to BLO, shellac and a brown aniline dye. I just put some BLO on some of the real purplish walnut and voila it is now a rich brown. Problem solved. I should have tried that before posting. Thanks again. I will try to post a pic when the project is complete.

[Jerry Olexa]

Bill glad its working out. Another option if you want to darken is use garnett shellac rather than the orange. I also agree BLO does wonders...