Can this be Walnut?

[David Justice]

The father of a friend of mine called me and said he had some wood for me if I wanted it, so I go over and he has about 40 BF of what he says is Spalted Walnut. It looks good with some checks on the ends, but every board is at least 7" wide and 8' long. It looks great, it just doesn't look like Walnut to me? Is it the spalting or just sap wood?

Any thoughts?

 

[Jeff]

Most of it looks like sapwood and some attached bark, maybe with a few darker heartwood sections, and there is a lot of spalting too.

 

[bash]

Hard to tell from the picture, but perhaps butternut (white walnut)?

 

[Graywolf]

I'd go with it possibly could be butter nut. With some spalting that could be interesting. Clean up a piece and skip plane a little and see!

 

[Steve Martin]

I agree about the sapwood and spalting but the wood reminds me of hickory or pecan.

 

[JimD]

If it's walnut the heartwood is sun bleached. If you plane a little off and it darkens, that would confirm it for me. There is a board about halfway down that looks darker than the one on top that makes me think it might be walnut.

 

[sawman101]

I'm frequently amazed when planning a piece of walnut that appears quite light, to have it come out a very dark brown. Aging seems to do that to it where it is exposed to light.

 

[JimD]

The sun bleaching also happens to the finished piece. I try to keep my walnut pieces out of direct sunlight but that only slows the process. Using a dye as part of the finishing process probably helps and I plan to use spar varnish or another finish with a UV block in it.

 

[Goat]

It's spalted pecan.

 

[BKHam]

it might be firewood

 

[Skymaster]

my thoughts also, no insult intended

 

[David Justice]

No insult taken, I didn't pay for it. I am going to try to use some of the more spalted pieces for accents, door panels, etc when I have use for them.

 

[tdukes]

If its free, grab it!!

 

[CDPeters]

It's spalted pecan.

I agree, but difficult to tell for sure.

To be sure, spalted pecan or hickory can make some nice panels. Below example is curly red oak cabinet with spalted pecan book matched panels.