Walnut Sapwood Value?

[Steve Kirincich]

Hello,

I bought some walnut boards from a fellow who cut down a tree in his yard several weeks ago. He is now stuck with a bunch of boards that mostly contain the white sapwood. He has asked me if they have any value and/or use. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Steve K.

[Art Mulder]

Hmmm,


backs or bottoms on cabinets
hidden parts of drawer frames
drawers
dovetail cutting practise
shop furniture

other ideas?

[Karl Brogger]

other ideas?

Heat.


If you had enough of it, it'd be kinda cool to make a whole project out of it, but my experience is that the color is all over the place.

[Andrew Gibson]

I agree with Art.
Anything you would use a secondary wood for it should work. I believe the sap wood is not as hard as the heart wood and may be more prone to boring insects.
It would work fine for shop furniture, secondary wood in furniture, jigs, tool handles, Turnings?

[Steve Schoene]

Of course, you could follow the practice of furniture manufacturers and make "fine" furniture from it. Finish with a sap dye and stain combination that make it all look pretty homogeneous and exactly like what most people think of as being walnut, until they have seen unsteamed and/or air dried walnut under a clear finish. .

[Jon Lanier]

The sap wood will spalt. Then you got yourself something more than secondary wood.

[Frank Drew]

Steve,

If your friend wants to know if walnut that's mostly sapwood has any monetary value, I think the answer is very little; I can't imagine why anyone would pay any kind of walnut premium for it. Priced like other secondary woods, such as poplar, bass, etc., then sure, someone might buy it.

[Jeff Gunter]

I had an uncle who ran a mill for 40+ years; apparently it was not uncommon for the less scrupulous guys to throw some non-walnut wood (might have been poplar or hackberry) into a steam kiln along with a load of walnut. The walnut color would be transferred to he non-walnut wood and sold along with the walnut at walnut prices. Might the same thing work to spread the color from heartwood to sapwood?

[Prashun Patel]

I think it has little monetary value. If he's willing to give it to you, I think you can make good use of it judiciously.

Personally, I like a little cream in my coffee; some of the best color changes happen at the sap/heart intersection, and the sweep of the line can be very interesting. It does, however, take a lot of design effort to incorporate it tastefully.

I'd hand pick a few of the interesting boards for a song, and then say no thanks to the rest.

[Myk Rian]

Book-matched, it could make some very interesting drawer fronts. That's what I did with my cherry tool chest.

[Frank Drew]

I had an uncle who ran a mill for 40+ years; apparently it was not uncommon for the less scrupulous guys to throw some non-walnut wood (might have been poplar or hackberry) into a steam kiln along with a load of walnut. The walnut color would be transferred to he non-walnut wood and sold along with the walnut at walnut prices. Might the same thing work to spread the color from heartwood to sapwood?

Jeff, I believe this treatment for walnut is a fairly common practice commercially; I've never used steamed walnut, but others here have said that the resulting boards are evenly colored (heart- and sapwood), but not very interestingly colored.

I don't care for sapwood and wouldn't incorporate it into any show portion of a piece of furniture I was making, but a bit of white along an edge is very different from the what I believe the original poster is talking about (a bit of color in the middle of otherwise white boards).