Knowledge You Can Build On — Est. 1998
English/European Walnut
John Veerkamp
I acquired a good amount of English Walnut several years ago. It turns nicely but is somewhat soft. Much lighter in weight and color than our black Walnut. My question is how does it react long term to air and ultraviolet exposure. Native Walnut gets lighter with age, what will this do? Maybe Richard or one of our other European members has an answer?
Re: English/European Walnut
Rum
The few pieces I scored off of a friends English walnut were pretty much white except for a wee core of dark heart wood (on pieces up to around 10" across, don't know what bigger stuff looks like). The light wood after about 5 years has pretty universally darkened where it didn't have UV protection (and it yellowed some there). The nicest pieces I coated in walnut oil and (accidentally) sun tanned - they took on a cool flecked appearance which has merged somewhat over time but was still there when I visited my friend who had the bowls last year.
Re: English/European Walnut
robo hippy
Persian walnut actually, till the English got hold of it. If it isn't grafted onto black walnut stock, it can be rather bland. With the black walnut on the bottom, it can have very nice color, and tends to age like black walnut. I haven't had any black walnut long enough to notice any color fade. It does make me sniffle a bit though.
robo hippy
Re: English/European Walnut
John K Jordan
You might try a simple test to see whether your wood gets lighter or darker with light and UV exposure.
This link has some photos where the right sides of several boards were exposed to the sun for just 30 hours:
Some of the english walnut I've turned years ago was pretty light but I haven't noticed further lightening. Same for black walnut. But I have some 30" slabs of eng. walnut which was grafted to black walnut and is quite dark and highly figured. I was told these slabs were cut about 40 years ago. I do notice the bare wood on the outsides of the slabs is a little lighter than the inside. I suspect some finishing coat would help preserve color but I personally don't yet have the any piece from this over a couple of years old to compare.
JKJ
