Hello all,
I am beginning plans for a new bench. Like many of you, I know that birch will make the most durable top. However, I recently have inheireted about 500bf of air dried walnut. How will this wood perform as my top? I plan on making the top about 2-21/2″ thick, about 7′ long. As always, thanks for the replies.
Replies
Walnut is not all that durable. If you plan to be doing much work on the bench, your walnut will look pretty rough pretty fast.
Birch, not so much. Maple yes, walnut no, too soft.
Perhaps he meant Beech.
ks
Regards,
Ken
"Do as you would be done by." C.S. Lewis
Dovetail, Don't hesitate to make the top out of walnut. Yes, Maple is harder, but there is a lot to be said about having the wood vs needing to go out and buy it. You'll have to do an awful lot of work to seriously impair the usefulness of the surface. Then you can true it up. Maple tops eventually need work, too. Just not as often. Rich
D.T.: Even if Walnut was a great choice for the top why not save it for a furniture project? It seems a waste of fine wood, unless it is of poor quality. KDM
"... Buy the best and only cry once.........
A great bench is a fine piece of furniture, in my mind anyway. However the point about the color being hard to work on ( try finding a small screw on that near black top) is one that would make me go to some other lighter wood even if I had a forest of walnut out back.
Wicked Decent Woodworks
(oldest woodworking shop in NH)
Rochester NH
" If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"
Edited 12/18/2006 4:42 pm ET by cherryjohn
So bleach it!
Most wood you'll be cutting will be lighter in color than the walnut anyway, so you'll be able to find what you're working on real good!
Rich
Its not the wood youll be cutting....its the lil pieces and screws etc youll be missing! It'll look great though
Serve Christmas dinner out in the shopWicked Decent Woodworks
(oldest woodworking shop in NH)
Rochester NH
" If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"
DT,
If I had it lying around I might use it for a tabletop. I wouldn't be concerned that it's softer than beech or maple. What would give me pause is the color. I'm not sure that in the long run I would want a work surface that is too dark in color. I can't back this up with proven "facts"...it just seems better to have a lighter color as backdrop to work on.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
David,
I agree with you, color is more of a draw back than hardness, specially when your eyes start to get old.C.
I'll swap you that walnut for some Yukon Spruce that I made my bench out of, and it works fine!.
The top of my bench is ash. The rest was made from walnut. This isn't pretty stuff though.There are checks, knots, etc that you will find in any pile of wood. I trimmed and glued things up so it would be structurally OK.
I wouldn't use really pretty stuff for a bench.
Frank
Made my bench from scrap poplar. I will probably replace the top before long. It is too soft & not all that stiff. Walnut isn't all that much better & I agree with the negative comments about the color for a bench top. I also agree with the idea of saving it for furniture unless it is really of poor quality beautywise. Even so, a walnut base with a lighter colored top seems more desirable. I believe that you would prefer beech to birch, but I am not certain.
Cadiddlehopper
Walnut is a poor choice for a working workbench. It's just too soft. If you're gonna look at it, and serve wine and crackers on it, then use walnut. If you're going to be chopping and sawing on it, and all the other woodworking tasks, than you'll be very sorry that you wasted both your time, and your walnut, on the bench.
Sell half of it, buy some maple, or other utilitarian closed-pored wood, and have at it. Save the walnut for your first piece of furniture built on the new bench.
Jeff
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