Replies

1. 
   user-83153 | Mar 27, 2008 12:13am | #1

   Christina,

   Butternut is a close relative to walnut (Juglans nigra) and will respond to finishing about the same. What are you trying to achieve. I think it looks good with a variety of finishes.

                    Rob

1. 
   Christinastadt | Mar 27, 2008 03:41am | #2

   Thank you. I never actually worked with walnut, so I am rather at a loss for experience. Would you recommend a color coordinated pore filler after some sort of dye has been applied for depth. I would like to preserve the pale slightly grayish ( ashes colored, as the latin name indicates)  cum latte original color of the wood, but the texture of the sanded surface is rather porous and I am afraid that any applied color will penetrate so much it will overwhelm that original tone.

   By the way, Christinastadt is the Germanized version of the place where I live.

1. 
   Henley | Mar 27, 2008 03:43am | #3

   I have no idea what your after but I like just
   plain old tung oil on it. Takes a few coats, with the open grain tho.

1. 
   SteveSchoene | Mar 27, 2008 01:31pm | #4

   Using pure tung oil almost always takes 5-6 coats, with several days between each one and sanding between coats.  You rush it at the risk of developing a "frosty" look where some of the tung oil turns white.  An oil/varnish mix, either made yourself with equal parts of varnish, boiled linseed oil, and mineral spirits, or a purchased product such as Watco, will give a very similar look, with fewer coats, more protection from water spotting, and no risk of white spots. 

   Oil finishes are a good choice for open pored woods like butternut and walnut, giving a nice look.  Film finishes can look bad unless the grain is fully filled and that adds both complexity and a much more formal appearance. 

2. 
   Scag_man | Mar 28, 2008 09:57pm | #12

   Sorry about the large pics...I'm just figuring out how to resize them.  Is this better?

   
1. 
   9michael9 | Mar 31, 2008 12:19am | #19

   It looks a little better, but not much.  Butternut has such a beautiful grain (see dog urn) and should not be covered with a strong stain.  You may as well painted the piece.

2. 
   Scag_man | Mar 27, 2008 06:56pm | #5

   I just re-finished an old butternut table.  After sanding it down to the raw wood, I stained it with a chestnut stain (reddish brown) and finished it with three coats of polyurethane.  The customer was thrilled with the final product.  See pics.

   
1. 
   SteveSchoene | Mar 27, 2008 07:21pm | #6

   How about some smaller images. 

2. 
   9michael9 | Mar 31, 2008 12:13am | #17

   It looks horrible, which proves beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

3. 
   boilerbay | Mar 28, 2008 01:43am | #7

   This is an ash box (urn) for one of our dogs done about 20 years ago. Butternut finished in 4 coats clear shellac only.

   John

   
1. 
   user-83153 | Mar 28, 2008 02:06am | #8

   No offense to scag man intended, but I like the looks of your natural piece much better.

                Rob

1. 
   boilerbay | Mar 28, 2008 05:36pm | #9

   Rob,You are kind. It is a beautiful wood, but if you didn't know it was a Walnut, you would think a little Balsa got into the mix. It's a little light. Open with very fragile end grain.
   If I did it now, aside from much better techniques, I think i would try a little diluted BLO first - maybe a a 30% mix. Although it might darken the wood too much and change the the point of choosing that wood. Baron, a Sheltie, was golden sable with shaded sable/streaks of brown.John

2. 
   Scag_man | Mar 28, 2008 10:02pm | #13

   None taken Rob.  I really liked the look of the box too.  The wood is a really light color, much lighter than what I was working with.  When doing the table, I compared unstained to stained, and it wasn't that much different.  Does butternut vary this much in color?  I never worked with it before.  The table was supposedly 100 years old...could the age darken it so much?

2. 
   nboucher | Mar 28, 2008 07:51pm | #10

   What a great idea!I have the ashes from a few pets stuck in a closet somewhere in the tin cans the vet delivered them in. You've inspired me to make a more worthwhile vessel for them.Thanks,
   Norman

3. 
   9michael9 | Mar 31, 2008 12:15am | #18

   Beautiful-Must have been one hell of a dog.  Kudos

4. 
   mrbird90 | Mar 28, 2008 09:15pm | #11

   I've made many pieces of furniture form butternut or white walnut, that is what they call it here. Takes stain well and the only problem is sanding as the wood can be fuzzy at times. Over the years I have found that once in a while I get a few boards that takes the first coat of polyurethane a couple of days to dry hard. This is with a wipe on and the regular brush on too. This is my favorite wood, second to cherry.

1. 
   Scag_man | Mar 28, 2008 10:05pm | #14

   Any pics you can post? 

1. 
   mrbird90 | Mar 30, 2008 06:10am | #16

   Here are a few pictures of tables I made from butternut in the 1970 time frame. The tables were stained with a maple and given several coats of varnish.

   
1. 
   9michael9 | Mar 31, 2008 12:22am | #20

   Beautiful, and I like the Roseville also.  The side table is my favorite.  I use minwax water based maple for walnut and butternut.  The honey color produced looks just like the piece has aged naturally for a hundred years or more. Great work!

2. 
   Christinastadt | Mar 29, 2008 01:05am | #15

   I have also noticed a definite tendency to fuzziness brought about by sanding. And the orbital sander can be rather too agressive with low numbers of grit. I ended up with light hand sanding, and as much hand planing as possible.

   Thanks ever so much to you and to all the contributors to this very thorough line of discussion. I have now as much information as I think I will need to experiment and make informed decisions and communicate color and surface texture options to the future owner of the piece I am making ( a gift to my son ). I will let him decide between leaving the wood almost natural with some coats of shellac, as one example showed, and some slightly deeper color and a tung oil-varnish mix suggested by another contributor.

   Again thank you all, and as a lesson learned, there is a lot of knowledge and experience available here! Saves a great deal of good wood!