walnut color

Keye

Keye
Corporate Member
I made a small walnut table top with some nice inlay work. It was for my wife and she did not like it. So I made the table out of cherry. The top ended up in the back of a closet where it has been for over 15 years. I pulled it out and decided to finish it and give it to a friend. I bought some walnut and finished making the table. I have now noticed the new walnut is much darker than the old walnut. I had to plane and dimension the new walnut. Will it lighten with exposure to air and light. I have several pieces of furniture I made using walnut. Now that I have looked at them closer they all appear to be lighter than I remember them being when first made.

Is it more likely to just be a different specie of walnut?
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
Most woods oxidize , fades or changes color, just depends on the type and environment. Paduk goes from orange to brown, Redwood or Cedar go from red to silver or darken to almost black.

I have a walnut bowl I did from the 60'schanged only a little but I put a finish on it
 

SabertoothBunny

SabertoothBunny
Corporate Member
Per Charlie our expert segmented turner, American black walnut is prone to color fading which is why he only uses Peruvian (South American) walnut because it doesn't suffer the same kind of color fade. So the color loss of the American black walnut is normal and expected.

I saw some pictures of a really old cherry nick-knack box, the exterior was almost black in color from age but the inside was a rich and dark red you expect from cherry. Wood colors change with exposure and use unfortunately.
 

bbrown

Bill
User
Ditto all the above. Walnut is one wood that gets lighter with time. It can gain a washed out appearance that is not terribly pretty IMO.
If you apply boiled linseed oil to the project prior to finishing (with topcoat of choice - shellac is my favourite) it will nicely darken the walnut. Walnut darkens with BLO much more than other species. Also using an oil finish such as this will not obscure the inlay and can make it "pop" nicely. If there is no inlay, walnut can be "warmed" by using a reddish gel stain.
 

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