I’ve read some threads that talk about Walnut turning lighter over time. I had looked at some Walnut stock at a local wood supplier and was suprised at how light it seemed. I’m used to seeing Walnut looking really dark – like the old office furniture material that used to be popular.
I ordered a sample door in Walnut. When I picked it up a few weeks ago, it seemed much darker than the stock at the lumber yard – but now it seems much lighter than I remember, almost a taupe color.
Here are my questions. Does this color change continue even after finishing? Is this caused by a chemical reaction with air that could stop after finishing or is it light related (UV)? The faceframes and trim that I will make out of the stock can be a bit different from the doors that I have made up, but I am wondering if it serves any purpose (other than slowing me down) to wait on finishing the doors or faceframes until the colors sort of stabilize or equilize to a similar shade – or will this color shift occur even after finishing, to the point where after a long while everything will look about the same?
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YOU HIT IT RIGHT ON THE NOSE... THE DARK WOODS GET LIGHTER IN THE SUNLIGHT AND THE LIGHTER WOODS GET DARKER.... INTERESTING.... SO NOW GRASSHOPPER YOU MUST USE YOUR DYES OR STAINS TO ENHANCE THE DARK LOOK OF WALNUT.. I HAVE BUILDING DOORS FOR MANY YEARS AND DO THE YEARLY MAINTENCE ON THEM. SO I HAVE SEEN THE EFFECTS OF SUN ON WALNUT... IT WILL BLEACH THEM OUT ALL THE WAY... LOOKING LIKE SAP WOOD. STAIN , STAIN STAIN OR DYE DYE DYE. THEN EVERYONE WILL WANT TO KNOW WHERE YOU GOT ALL THAT BEAUTIFUL WALNUT... DARK WALNUT... BUT DON'T TELL THEM OUR SECRET.......... IT IS A TRADE SECRET. MANY YEARS OF WOODWORKING.. HASTA LA VISTA WOODY
Woody,
Why are you shouting?
Regards,
Bill Arnold - Custom Woodcrafting Click Here if you're interested in a good,inexpensive website host.
Food for Thought: The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
HEY SORRY I AM NOT SHOUTING.... SORRY MY COMPUTER HAS A STUCK KEY HERE... THIS IS THE THIRD TIME IT IS HAPPENED AND I AM NOT GOING TO GET ANOTHER KEYBOARD... MAYBE ANOTHER SAW OR ROUTER SOME BITS.. WHO CARES ABOUT THE TYPO STUFF... ??? I JUST REPLIED AND TRY TO HELP OUT A FELLOW WOODWORKER... FIND MEANING TO DARK WALNUT... SORRY I REPLIED!!!!!!!!!!
There are great variations in walnut these days. First, to answer your question, walnut gets lighter when exposed to UV. It can actually get almost white. It is actually somewhat unique in this regard among common domestic hardwoods.
Much of the old, slow growth walnut has been harvested and the new growth does not produce as much dark heartwood as the older trees. Walnut also has a fairly large amount of sapwood which is white in color.
To produce better yield, commercial kiln driers will inject steam into the drying process which tends to color the sapwood brown. But, it also tends to bleach out some of the darker brown in the heartwood. This means that the wood is more uniform but it also means that the heartwood is less attractive. For this reason, some woodworkers will only use air dried walnut. BTW, white sapwood is not considered a defect in walnut from a grading point of view.
What all of this means is that you need to be real picky when selecting walnut lumber. Look it over carefully and match the color as much as you can when choosing lumber for a particular project.
When it comes to finishing, there are some ways to get some of the color back. Jeff Jewitt has an excellent article in the current FWW about finishing walnut the I recommend reading.
so if walnut gets lighter from uv light if i get a piece of rough sawn stock 4 quarter thick can i expect to get a finished piece about 3/4 thick after planeing. i know this is a tough question i guess the sun bleaches the top surface just wondering how deep would go?
Thomas B. Palumbo
CUSTOM WOODWORKING
A while back, I bought a few hundred b.f. (mostly walnut, but it was something of a mixed bag) from a guy. He was a hobby woodworker who accumulated wood faster than he could use it. To make a long story short, he had all this wood for 15 years or more, had moved it 3 times to new houses, was moving again and didn't want to mess with it anymore. So it is mine now. . .
But to the point. Some of the walnut is very bleached. Some has a very distinct golden cast to it, others are just a lighter shade of brown. But the bleached layer is very thin, thinner than a plane shaving. There is some old cherry in the stack also. The color shift in the cherry seems to go much deeper into the boards. Don't know why, but that's the way it is.
You know, we're not talking about walnut getting lighter in a matter of days, weeks or months. It takes quite a while unless the walnut is is direct outdoor sunlight. In a normal room, it will take years to get light. I have two pieces of walnut furniture. One I made in the late 1960's and the other I purchased a few years later. The older piece was stained with an oil based walnut stain and then coated with an oil/varnish. Periodically, it is recoated with an oil/varnish applied with a gray scotchbrite pad. The color has remained dark and natural.The second piece has been in a little more light and the parts that were dyed sapwood have lightened quite a bit and the heartwood walnut not nearly as much. But, overall, the walnut has lightened.So, while true that walnut lightens over time, it is not something to be overly concerned about. Certainly it's no reason not to use the wood that many consider the premier american furniture wood.Howie.........
thank you and joinerwork for your replies. very interesting. the place i get my wood from has there material stored outside covered but sunlite hits the wood during certain times of the day. i understand about the bleaching just wasn't sure if it was surface or deeper. my first piece was supposed to be from walnut but the wood and the salesman convinced me to use mahogany. the wife was happy but i'll be trying walnut for other thingsThomas B. Palumbo
CUSTOM WOODWORKING
tommy,
The bleaching is only on the surface. One pass with a plane or scraper will get you back to the dark color. That's what makes repairing an antique piece a challenge.
Regards,
Ray
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