Walnut Sapwood

[Robert Gilbert]

I'm sawing up some walnut logs and found that, although there's some nice black heartwood, most of it is white sapwood. The white stuff seems to be of the same consistency as the black walnut. My question is, do people use the sapwood in making furniture? Thanks.

Rob Gilbert

[John Eaton]

Probably the main reason Walnut get's steamed by wood processors before drying is that it evens out the colors between sap and heart - it also "muddies" the colors a bit in my opinion. I think that there is little difference between sap and heart other than color and like to use the sap when possible as a design element. In general though, the sap is used when the wood has been steamed, otherwise most sap is avoided in air-dried lumber.

-- John

[Rob Diz]

I'm sawing up some walnut logs and found that, although there's some nice black heartwood, most of it is white sapwood. The white stuff seems to be of the same consistency as the black walnut. My question is, do people use the sapwood in making furniture? Thanks.

Rob Gilbert

Most folks don't use it. Now if you have a number of regular sized boards that are all sapwood, some with decent grain orientation, you might be able to market "albino walnut" and get somewhere with it;)

The problem with sapwood is that it is difficult to stain or dye to match the dark wood, which will then lighten up over time. I'm in the middle of a walnut project right now, and my burn pile has lots of sapwood in it. To me, it's just a cost of using walnut.

[Craig D Peltier]

Stuff I have built from it I have had the same issues. I have had my finisher tint his lacquer to blend it in, worked good for me.
I have been told my a supplier that does walnut glue ups that you get about %30 heart out of an order. I aks for 90% heart one face and then the best i can get is maybe %70 on other side. Good for tops but not so good for legs.
Walnut seems to have the most waste between sapwood an open knots.

[Jim Becker]

This is an aesthetic decision relative to displaying sap in furniture. Obviously, the natural edge styles, such as work by George Nakashima, embrace it. But most makers in other styles do not use the sap or when they do, they try to color it. Rob mentioned the number one reason why mills that product walnut will often steam it during the drying process...steaming makes the sap get darker and the heart get a little lighter, making it all the same boring brown color and providing much higher yield from logs that just don't have heart all the way to the bark. (Typical for walnut and sometimes for cherry)

While you can color the sap as Craig talks about, it's important to note that wood changes color over time. Most woods, cherry being one of the most visible examples, turn darker with time, UV exposure and oxidation. Walnut, on the other hand, gets lighter and will often end up a nice, honey brown. If you color sapwood, you have to take that into account as the sap does not generally change color over time...and it's a guessing game as to what the ultimate color will be for a given piece which is also influenced by the particular finishing products you use.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I haven't had a lot of experience with walnut but have found that the sapwood is also susceptible to powder post beetle. The heartwood, like other species, is not bothered by them. The critters are going for sugars and carbohydrates in the sapwood which the heartwood lacks.

[Wade Lippman]

I have used it for accent on walnut items, but it isn't worth much except as a novelty. The sap wood is significantly inferior to the heartwood, or to maple for that matter (since is somewhat similar to maple in appearance).

[Chip Lindley]

Not even good kindling in the woodstove! Walnut *pops* and *sparks* too much! Old Growth walnut lumber had a small amount of sapwood relative to the huge girth of the tree and its heartwood. Todays fresh sawed walnut lacks that size, and a larger porportion of sapwood. I have four black walnut planks 14' long, 16" wide, 2-1/2" thick--ALL heartwood, which the gentleman in his 80s said were sawed when he was a teenager. I am saving them for the *Right* project, goes without saying!

[Peter Quinn]

I don't like walnut sap wood or boards with too much sap for items that must be joined and stay flat. I find walnut to be a fairly stable wood, but the sap moves too much for some things, and boards cut from that sap/heart wood line where half one face is all heart and the other all sap are often very unpredictable. I have made passage door styles for closet doors where only one face heart wood was required, so some sap was allowed on the B face. Problem is the styles move all over the place, so I wind up having to use heart wood anyway. For applications where good stability over long lengths is not a requirement it can be an acceptable design element if it suits your tastes.

I spent the afternoon sorting through several thousand BF of 5/4-8/4 walnut trying to find four boards to make two walnut stair landings with one clean edge and one clean face. Hundreds of boards to find four! And I'm allowed to leave some sap on the B face as long as it doesn't show on the leading edge. Walnut is not what it used to be. And I'd like to get my hands on the neck of the person that invented the steaming technique, though I can now spot the sap wood from 20 feet away in the rough and generally avoid it when possible.