English walnut???

[philip labre]

My buddy cut this at his sister inlaws on Lake Michigan at the Wisconsin-Michigan border. He owns a sawmill and has planted many walnut and butternut from nuts, so I believe him when he says it's walnut. But, this wood looks just like butternut, yet it's harder and heavier than butternut. I've never seen English walnut lumber, nor have I ever heard of anyone planting any up here, so I need some input on species. The color is darkened from the walnut oil and beeswax finish. Bowl is 11.5"x4.5". Comments and critiques welcome. Now I have to go figure out what to do with the ash funnel I made today.
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[cal thelen]

only word that come to my mind is WOW!!

[Richard Jones]

whatever it is it sure is gorgeous, and you did a nice job in bringing out the beauty.

Thanks for sharing.

Rich

[Matt Evans]

The round form throws me a bit, but I can definitely see some walnut characteristics in the wood. I am not really all that familiar with English walnut, other than on a few guns I have fired over the years, but it might be. . .

Nice Bowl though. . .simple, elegant. . .I like it.

[Bill Bolen]

Beautiful piece!! English Walnut or Butternut either one...just plain gorgeous.

[Baxter Smith]

Simple bowls out of beautiful wood are always great to look at! Very well done!

[David E Keller]

Can't help you with the wood ID, but I'll be happy to store this piece at my house until you figure out what it is... Take your time.

Great looking bowl.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Phil - hope someone can help you identify the wood but it sure is some pretty stuff! Very nice work on the bowl and I really like how you managed to keep the knots! Maybe Leo will come along shortly and let us all know what species the wood is!

Thanks for sharing the bowl!

[John Keeton]

Beautiful bowl! From my understanding, the walnut orchards in California are English walnut stock grafted on Claro root stock. I have some walnut that was identified to me as English walnut from an orchard. It is definitely somewhat different in color than the Claro, but not nearly this color. But, on the other hand, soil conditions can make a huge difference in wood characteristics. I did find a reference to an orchard of English walnut in central Michigan, so it very well could be.

[Reed Gray]

English (actually, I think it is properly called Persian, but after the English started growing it, it became English walnut) is the cultured tree that is raised mostly for nuts. An old practice was to graft it onto the black walnut strains which was the more primative tree and more hearty. That practice has pretty much died out. Some problem with a disease transferring, or the root overgrowing the graft, or some thing. Some were grafted at ground level, some up higher in the tree. English walnut that hasn't been grafted onto other stock is a rather drab tan color. Your walnut there could be English, but it isn't as chocolate colored as ours is out here. I have only had a few pieces of butternut, and it was more brown. Biggest difference I noticed is that the butternut smelled more like vinegar, and the English smelled more walnutty if that makes any sense. Lovely colors.

robo hippy

[John Hart]

I have some kiln-dried English Walnut blanks out in the shop. I'll take some pics this afternoon and post them. Off hand, I'd guess that your bowl is not English Walnut...just because of the ingrain and spectrum of color. But I don't know really. I'll take pics and you decide.

But the bowl is just breathtaking...Very nice!! :)

[Michelle Rich]

Don't know what the wood is other than GORGEOUS..and you sure turned it well..and finished it well..it shows off mom nature at her best!

[Roland Martin]

Whatever it is, it doesn't lack character. Very nice bowl.

[jwjerry w kowalski]

Man, that is some beautiful wood whatever it is. Nice one of kind wood.

[Terry Beadle]

To test the funnel, place dump end in mouth with head facing up. Apply beer to funnel end. Swallow as needed. Let me know if you need assistance ! Hoot!

Nifty bowl and really good wood...congrats !

[bob svoboda]

Very nice bowl from beautiful wood. Doesn't look like the English Walnut we have here. What I have turned has very dark brown heart wood and a kind of creamy white sapwood. Whatever it is is sure nice.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really a nice bowl and the wood is really beautiful.

[John Hart]

Ok...here's some pics of some English Walnut I had in the shop. I tried to get good close-ups so you can see the ingrain. You'd probably have to decide Phillip.
I included a piece of plain black walnut in the last pic for comparison.

Sure is pretty wood. :)

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[philip labre]

Thanks for the pics John. I think I'm safe to say it is English walnut. Someone probably got a tree from a seed catalog for the backyard. I told my buddy that if it is an English, then we need to beat the squirrels to the nuts from the ones he planted from this one. Picked up a couple of more sections of it today. He used the Anchorseal I gave him, but didn't get it out of the sun. I'll just have to see what I can salvage from them. Thanks again, John and everyone else for the kind comments.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Philip if you had a nut to show from this tree it would be easy to tell what it was, however as you don't show one I will have to go with what you show and what I know of these trees.

What you call English could just as well be called American, after-all the so Called English Walnut isn't English by origin at all, Carpathian Walnut also often called Persian is the original tree, and grown all over Europe, and it is not called French or Belgian Or Dutch or whatever for where it does grow now :rolleyes: English :eek::p

So next, I did have a Carpathian Walnut growing in my backyard, still relatively small with only a few nuts on it the last couple of years it was still growing.

In October 2008 we had a very early heavy wet snowfall and several of my trees got damaged, with the Carpathian Walnut splitting right in half.

I have turned a few smaller pieces from it and here is a couple of pictures showing the tree after the snow storm and a set of pictures of one of the bowls I turned.

Also took your picture and made an annotate on it to show the area I'm talking about when I suggest that it is probably White Walnut, but I'm not really certain about that, but I very much suspect it is.

Since your bowl has so much different grain with the two knots in it, the telltale grain is only showing in a very small area, still it does make me believe it is White Walnut and not Carpathian/Persian.


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[Pierce Davidson]

I have some experience with English Walnut and would bet that that is what that is. It is an exceptional piece of stock and you did a great job on it.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I am quite certain it is White Walnut, AKA Butternut, the wild grain from the knots disguise the grain that would show better that it is White Walnut, you can look at my earlier pictures that I put up and compare the Carpathian Walnut and the White Walnut to the picture of the OP (English Walnut) :-))

[philip labre]

Leo, i thought the same thing and argued with him, but he swears the nuts were round and not elongated like butternut. The wood is heavier and harder than my other butternut too. I have a few more pieces now so I'll see what these are like. Thanks.

[Donny Lawson]

Beautiful bowl. That is some awsome grain in there.