Replies

1. 
   Danford_C._Jennings | Jan 11, 2002 05:57am | #1

   *
   Leonard,

   Personally, I never stain Walnut and never use a sealer on hard woods. Unless of course, you consider shellac a "sealer".

   Dano

1. 
   Donminer | Jan 18, 2002 12:19am | #2

   *My preference is to first stain the walnut with a dye made from walnut hulls, followed by a coat of natural Watco oil then shellac. This evens out any difference in color between heartwood and sapwood and gives the walnut a rich color that in my opinion can't be beat.

1. 
   davamoore_ | Jan 18, 2002 12:40am | #3

   *Donminer --Last night I saw a recipe for making walnut stain out of black walnut hulls, in one of the Fine Woodworking books (a collection of articles called "Wood"). It was written by Jon Arno, and called for soaking the hulls in industrial (non-detergent) ammonia.Is that the recipe you use, or do you have another, secret recipe? I think Rob Millard recently had a post on using walnut hull stain, but I haven't done a search yet. I have a bunch of black walnuts edging my meadow, and I'd love to get some use out of all the hulls lying around (I'm cheap).David

1. 
   Donminer | Jan 18, 2002 06:40pm | #4

   *I've just filled a quart Mason jar about half way with the dried hulls, filled the jar with distilled water plus two tablespoons of ammonia and let sit for about a week. I've made some without adding the ammonia and had the unhappy experience of having the mix go moldy and smelly!! on me. I've had stain made this way stored in a cool place (basement) for a year and it hasn't gone bad on me yet. I add another tablespoon of ammonia about every three months though. This is essentially the recipe in the 'Finish Line' article by Chris Minick, FWW #140, p. 129. I think the primary advantage of making it up in all ammonia is to extract more of the dye. I've achieved pretty much the same result by reusing the hulls to make a second batch. To me the extra effort is worth it to avoid the ammonia stench while filtering which in my experience is a slow tedious process. Sam Allen's book 'Classic Finishing Techniques' has a recipe where he soaks them in household ammonia. I personally wouldn't use industrial strength or reagent ammonia as Arno recommends, for safety reasons.By the way thanks for your lead to the reference on laying out tombstone doors.Good luck with your finishing project.DonPS I envy your source of hulls. I've gotten mine from Kremer Pigments, and they're expensive--$27.50/kg.

1. 
   davamoore_ | Jan 18, 2002 08:27pm | #5

   *Don --$27.50/kg??!! Is that U.S. or Canadian? In any case, I had no idea I had such treasure lying around! ("Maybe I can earn enough to pay for some tools I'm coveting... hmmm...," he thinks, rubbing his greedy hands between taps on the keyboard...)Anyway, thanks for the recipe. I've printed it out and will save it for next year, when I harvest the crop.David

2. 
   joshua_miller | Jan 23, 2002 10:34pm | #6

   *velvit oil located in neenah wisconsin is the best finish i have ever used. its so easy and repels hot coffy,alcohol,and any thing that you can throw at it. its also easy to repair.just sand and reaply.the have a web site.