How can I tell if the walnut I have is Claro Walnut? I just purchased a half bundle of mill run walnut and quite a few boards have a different grain pattern than I have ever seen than the black walnut that grows in TN. Some pics are posted below. Based on pictures I’ve seen on the net, the boards look similar to Claro, but how could I know more definitively? Thanks Jason
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What you have certainley looks like Claro, but I personally don't know of any definitive test. The strange part is that it was somehow mixed in with eastern black walnut. Usually the geographic seperation of where they grow would prevent that.
Yes, it is strange. The mill operator said it was cut a year ago and he couldn' t remember whether they bought if from a logger or a farmer /home owner who may have had one growing near their home.
Where are you located, or where did you buy the stuff? It has the typical color and grain pattern of claro. It IS, as someone mentioned, possible to get both types from the same tree as the black walnut gets (I think) english walnut grafted onto it.
I bought a stack of it from one of the local tie mills that sells me lumber. They had this stack on sticks for quite a while before I noticed it. Around Linden TN where I leave there are several tie mills that get nice lumber from time to time.
You have some beautiful marbled walnut. Eastern walnut can be full of color and unique pattern. I think it depends greatly on the size of log and how it is dried. Most eastern walnut that is available looks like a Hershey bar because it is steamed. Steaming bleeds the tannin into the sap wood; Leaving the lumber to look bland.
Without the nut from the tree or running a DNA test you may never know.
It is pretty, it is walnut , nice score. Go make sawdust;) Sara
http://www.nwtimber.net
Thanks Sara. I hate to admit this, but I traded several of the wider boards to a friend before realizing what I had in the stack. He was the one who told me I need to plane up some of the boards and check out the figure. Lesson learned. I know he appreciated it though.
Not absolutely sure, but I think the name "claro" is a trade term applied to grafted walnut from old California groves. If memory serves, the grain gets wild above the graft union.
What someone else said about the boring retail walnut is quite true. Walnut as sliced from the log can have very attractive figure and a range of colors. Many of the colors will fade over time (walnut is onw of the very few woods that lightens with age), but they are there. As it happens, though, Walnut also had an unusually wide ring of sapwood. this means that on big trees, you can have 3 inches of so of plain-ish cream colored wood on many boards. In order to even out the color and sell the sapwood, many mills will inject steam at the end of the kiln-drying process. This spreads the color around and evens it while killing off the character of the wood.
Joe
My guess is that if the mill operator is at all savvy if you just bought walnut you just got juglans nigra or black walnut. Why, because if he had a Claro walnut log to saw it would be sold as Claro walnut because the selling price for the Claro is considerably higher. Avarice or wishful thinking might see black walnut being sold as Claro, but the otherway around--not so much.
You would be suprised at how little the local tie mills here are about figured wood. I have been trying for several months to get them to set aside figured lumber/logs for me, but I have only found one that is reasonably knowledgeable about figure in a variety of woods. I asked one mill to set aside some hard maple that he said had birdseye figure in the stack, turned out it wasn't birdseye, but curly maple. Nevertheless, I was still satisfied.
Claro Walnut appears to be more desirable than definable. Here is this from Woodfinder:
"Claro" is a Spanish word meaning clear or bright, and the common name "claro walnut" is usually used to refer to the wood cut from the lower bole (stump) of orchard walnut trees, especially on the West coast of the US. These trees are a mixture of species, created by grafting an English walnut (Juglans regia) scion to a rootstock of one of our native walnut species -- either black walnut (Juglans nigra) or California walnut (Juglans hindsii). The wood near the graft tends to be variegated in color, with beautiful marble-like, dark brown and tan swirls in the figure. It is a favorite wood for making gunstocks.
There is some confusion about the term "claro", since the lumber trade sometimes uses it to describe the wood of ordinary California walnut, which is more like black walnut, rather than the marbled variety cut from orchard trees.
Claro walnut has working properties similar to black walnut. It works well with hand and power tools, has good strength and bending properties, and takes finishes well. It is used mainly for high-quality furniture and gunstocks.
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