Walnut Darkening

[Dustin Lorenz]

I am not new to turning and carving, however I am new to fresh fallen lumber. A friend of mine recently lost three large walnut trees to a wind storm. Score for me :D I took the root balls (whole stump) any crotch section some 6" some 14" diameter and alot of 2" to 3" limbs to make walking sticks. My question is will the lumber turn dark as it dries or is this perhaps a different species of walnut. I am 100% sure it is walnut and the heart wood is dark however the other 50% of the diameter is not. Thanks for any input and if anyone is in my vacinity and might like some I'll have more than I need. Northeast Wisconsin / Bordering U.P.

[Sean Hughto]

Walnut, like cherry, has very distinct heartwood and sapwood. What you are describing sounds normal.

[David Helm]

Is it Black Walnut or English Walnut? They are very different.

[John Keeton]

I think the answer to the basic question is the sapwood will remain light, though darken a little.

The heartwood will lighten a little as it dries, but mostly just going from wet to dry. I doubt the actual color of the wood changes much. However, as it is exposed to sunlight, it will lighten considerably over the years to a warm dark amber color.

[David E Keller]

What John said.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I agree with John. The sap wood can make some nice contrast if turned right.

[Art Kelly]

I got some black walnut logs a few years ago that were about 24" in diameter. They had been laying in a field for a while. The bark was gone and there was some spalting in the sapwood.

However, the sapwood-heartwood boundary was partially obscured, like the heartwood had bled into the sapwood, sometimes completely to the outer edge. The heartwood was beautiful, but the sapwood was just sort of muddy.

The attached bowl is one I kept the sapwood on because it was at least interesting if not pretty.

I've seen photos on SMC where this boundary was very distinct and the sapwood was a beautiful uniform color.

I guess the point is that based on this, it should be harvested quickly and roughed out to speed up drying so this doesn't occur.

Anyone else seen this?

Art

[Reed Gray]

The bigger the tree, the higher percentage of heart wood there is, at least for black walnut. I usually won't mess with trees out here that are less than 18 inches in diameter because over half of it is sap wood. Once they get beyond that size, there seems to be a lot more heartwood. I have noticed that the bugs will get into the sap wood, but won't touch the heartwood. English walnut can be rather plain light grey color, unless it has been grafted onto the black walnut, then it has a very nice lighter brown color to it.

robo hippy

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Walnut used to be often rolled into a pond, and left for a couple years, so the sapwood would darken up, nowadays the wood is steamed to do the same in a much shorter time.
Walnut will bleed from dark into light wood (heartwood into sapwood) and get a kind of dirty looking color, it stops when the wood is dry, so if you have fresh cut wood you can turn it and if dry quick enough you can keep the sapwood quite light and have this color difference showing, here's picture that shows this a bit


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[Karl Card]

I like the heartwood but to me there isnt much prettier than walnut with alot of heartwood and just enough sapwood to cause a nice contrast.

[Dustin Lorenz]

Well now that I understand the sap and heartwood difference I think I will try to steam some of my walking sticks first and see how that goes. Should be fairly easy I already have a ten foot 6" diameter steamer for bending. I'll just have to play with moisture and temp levels to see what works best. Any advice on the best sealer for them would be appreciated. I do wrap the actually hand section with leather strapping and form a sling like a ski pole so I am not worried about that area. Most people I have sold them to never actually use them for hiking anyway. As far as the pieces for turning projects I might leave them for the contrast. The only other black walnut I've worked with has been boards that my wifes grandpa sawed for me and he must have cut out all the sap wood or steamed/soaked them because I did not have any sap wood to deal with.

Thanks again guys :)

[Richard Coers]

Steaming walnut can really mute the colors. It will leach into the sapwood, but you can loose the purples that often appear in air dried. I brought home some walnut root ball last weekend. Turning the sections has revealed some wonderful color. But I won't know the real color until it oxidizes. There are way too many greens showing up so far. I'm for just using the colors as is. But be careful if you want the white sapwood to remain white. It can mold and loose that bright color.