Walnut -- N. American or Tropical, (Peruvian)?

[Tom LaRussa]

Any preferences?

Which would you prefer and why?

[Mark Singer]

They are completely different woods. I perfer the grain of American walnut for most projects. African walnut (Shedua) is another great wood...beautiful, stable and nice to work with

[Steve Cox]

Compared to American Walnut I find the Peruvian type to be softer and also to be very irritating to my respiratory system. I can't even plane it without wearing a respirator. It is however a very beautiful wood. If building furniture where walnut would be the main wood as opposed to an accent I would prefer American Walnut because of the hardness differences.

[Chris Padilla]

Greg H. brought some "Central/South American" walnut to Terry's CSBBQ and we cleaned some up on the jointer/planer and I have to say that it didn't look particularly interesting. The piece we had was clean and straight-grained and just looked like good old walnut.

[Jamie Buxton]

I tried some "peruvian walnut" 15 years ago or so, when my lumber dealer was offering it as a half-price alternative to domestic walnut. I don't know what it actually is. Some imports (for instance, brazilian cherry or phillipine mahogany) have fanciful marketing names which don't reflect their botanical origin. At any rate, I thought it was a respectable wood, but not the equal of domestic walnut. Good domestic walnut machines beautifully, and finishes to a gorgeous gloss. That peruvian stuff came out kinda flat.

Domestic walnut prices have dropped in the past decade, so for me there'd be even less incentive to try to get by with the peruvian stuff.