Replies

1. 
   JeffHeath | May 19, 2005 07:16am | #1

   tyguy

   Those vibrant purple colors you are seeing are due to the fact that the walnut was air dried, and not from a kiln.  Kiln drying walnut, imho, takes a beautiful wood, walnut, and dulls the colors.  If I were you, I'd find some air dried walnut to match, and finish the project.

   Almost all my furniture is finished with General Finishes, and I have had great results, and many, many satisfied customers.  It will do a terrific job of bringing out the colors of the air dried walnut, but I doubt it will get the kiln dried stuff up to snuff.

   Jeff

1. 
   WillGeorge | May 19, 2005 05:50pm | #2

   I suppose I'll get some flack on this one..

   If you have not cut anything yet.. Get the best match you can and maybe by different layout of the sticks you can make it look (sort of) the same.. Or at least the 'nice' color draws the eye away..

   I forgot.. Use a dye wiping the (dull) purple areas.... Takes a special touch do make it look nice.. I can't but I just call my oldest daughter over to do stuff like that.. She can paint in oils and got a 'NACK fewr it'  LOL...

   Edited 5/19/2005 10:54 am ET by Will George

2. 
   Miami | May 21, 2005 09:50pm | #3

   I concur with the advice you've gotten here, and one more thing - if you can't get any air-dried walnut that'll match closer (and maybe even if you can), try to use one kind on ALL the vertical members and another on ALL the horizontal members  (Think about what will show once the quilts are on it - presumably that is the verticals.)  Use the pretty stuff where it shows.

   By using one color on all vertical, and another on all horizontal surfaces, you can almost completely avoid having the same light angle ever falling on the two colors of wood, and by this method you can cover up some pretty severe color differences.

   Good luck ...   A quilt rack made from grampa's walnut - now there's an heirloom in the making!

   Clay

3. 
   SgianDubh | May 22, 2005 02:18am | #4

   Six months to a year after you've completed the project and it's been in use you'll probably not be able to tell the difference in colour between the air dried and kiln dried stuff.

   the purples and blues will be gone and it will all have mellowed out to a honey brown, which assumes you do nothing to dye the stuff or change the natural colour in any other way. Walnut often looks a bit cold if finished natural, and water based finishes with lots of UV blockers make it look even colder for longer.

   If you want to leave it natural use finishes that add a bit of colour to the wood, e.g., shellac or oil based varnish. The nitro-cellulose family work quite well too. I'm not familiar with the General finish you propose but you say it's got tung oil in it. I assume this stuff is an oiled based varnish, so that would do nicely to yellow or amber the natural colour up a bit. Slainte.

   RJFurniture