2 questians

[Allan Ferguson]

Butter nut. How is it as a turning wood? Walnut oil for pepper mill, good- bad?

[Jason Silva]

Butternut is basically lighter walnut. Turns beautifully.

[Thom Sturgill]

Since butternut is favored by carvers, I think you would find it a little softer than most black walnut, but very similar in grain appearance. It was favored by Shakers as 'white walnut' if I remember correctly.

Walnut oil is one of three hardening oils and well processed oils like Mahoneys should produce no allergy problems.

[Reed Gray]

I have turned only a little butternut, which is also known as white walnut. Wonderful warm brown color. It does tend to be a little stringy, so sharp tools and light finish cuts, even some times wetting the wood for finish cuts. The branches can have spider web rings where the growth rings are scalloped rather than just plain rings. Makes a really nice pattern for a bowl. I would welcome more if I could get my hands on it, but not much out here in the far west.

I only made a couple of pepper mills. I don't know if I would put any finish on the inside. If you do use the walnut oils, I would wait a couple of weeks for it to totally cure before using. I would not use a solvent based finish because then any pepper would smell like mineral spirits or what ever else was used. Maybe Bullseye spray lacquer which is alcohol based and you can't smell anything in seconds.

robo hippy

[Jim Burr]

There is no reason to put finish on the inside of a mill. The open grain belps control moisture. And since no other maker of professional quality mills uses this practice...can't see a reason to do it

[Rob Price]

I will say I did seal the inside of my olive wood mills- but only because the olive oil would be absorbed by the salt/pepper. I used shellac for it.