Walnut Sapwood

Re: Walnut Sapwood

tek-Brunswick, Ohio

>I've heard steaming works, but I've never tried it.

Re: Walnut Sapwood

Gary Evans, Tallassee, TN

>Steaming will darken the sapwood, but also changes the color of the heartwood. I've also read that steamed walnut doesn't work the same as un-steamed, but I think that is primarily a concern for flatwork.

Gary

Re: Walnut Sapwood

Ron in Drums PA

>Steaming then kiln drying works, but it changes the color of the heartwood also.

IMHO - air dryed walnut looks alot better then klin dyed

Re: Walnut Sapwood *LINK*

Les Robison

>You can use dyes to color the sapwood the same as heartwood. The dyes penetrate the wood, while stains sit pretty much on the surface. If you want an explanation of the process, etc. look on Homesteadfinishing.com. You can sign in and ask Jeff Jewitt the specific questions on his forum.

Les


http://Homesteadfinishing.com

Walnut Sapwood, why...?

John K Jordan

>I don't know the answer but I've wondered about this too. Can some process naturally darken the sap wood? Consider two trees:

A couple of years ago I was given a large pile of black walnut that someone had cut into 1.5-2.5' lengths. The bark appeared to be partially decayed and pealed off easily by hand. The wood was dark all the way from the center to the bark with NO light wood. It had surprisingly few end grain cracks and checks and I cut a lot of nice turning blanks from it.

The second tree: while clearing some land a few weeks ago I had to remove a black walnut tree at the edge of an open area. It was about 14" in diameter and had only about 3" of dark wood! The light wood did have very wide growth rings indicating rapid growth over the last 18 years while the dark wood had smaller growth rings. (The clearing edge was extended to that tree about 18 years ago, possibly giving the tree some light and explaining the rapid growth.)

I've wondered what explains the difference in these two trees.

R. Bruce Hoadley in "Understanding Wood" indicates that as the tree develops to where the entire trunk is no longer needed for sap conduction the sap wood slowly changes to heartwood by the inclusion of extractives and death of the parenchyma cells. But I can't imagine that the first tree would need NO sapwood.

Could it be that the first tree grew much slower, or perhaps sat dead on the stump for years and the sapwood darkened naturally?

JKJ in East TN

Re: Walnut Sapwood

Carole in VA

>Wasn't there a way to do it with ammonia? My feeble brain fails me when I try to recall how.

Re: Walnut Sapwood, why...?

John Lucas

>John

I think growth rate has a lot to do with it. Fast growing Walnut trees have a lot of sap wood. I cut a tree away from my friends garage. he said I could have the wood. It grew very fast, I didn't count the growth rings but they were very wide. It was about 12" in diameter and had almost no heart wood, maybe 3 or 4 inches. I cut one from a wooded area on a farm last week that was 14" and it had about 12" of heart wood. The growth rings were pretty tight. Just my guess.

Re: Walnut Sapwood

John Lucas

>In the furniture industry they frequently dye the wood or use glazes after the initial finish to even out walnut colors. I photographed the process at Norwalk Industries about 6 or 8 years ago. It's amazing how good those guys are. If you ever need to refinish a walnut table do everything you can to clean the finish 1st. If you strip it or sand it you will have to go through the whole process of staining and glazing to get it back to normal. Trust me on this. My "friend"(that's me)did this.

Re: Walnut Sapwood...the ONLY way

Ruth Niles

>The only way to dye the sap wood as close as possible to the heartwood without affecting the heartwood is to boil the walnuts, make a dye and soak the wood. When I was in the antique business, my girlfriend (and business partner)and I would literally set up a caldron over a fire outside, boil the walnuts all day then bottle the dye. We used it on 100 yr. old walnut furniture and the results were 100 times better than any you could possibly achieve with anything on the market.

Whatever you do, do NOT get this stuff on your hands (or anywhere), you cannot clean it off with anything, it has to wear off as you get new skin. Trust me, I know!?!

Re: Walnut Sapwood

Pat Mulligan

>Hello I have read that steaming works.I also notice that when I boil walnut bowls the sapwood takes on a much darker color. Pat