Replies

1. 
   jvk | Sep 29, 2008 11:49pm | #1

   It may not be "black" walnut but regular.  The purple disappears when you varnish it.  Rub some mineral spirits on it and you'll see what I mean and what it'll look like finished.

   trimjim
1. 
   mapleman | Sep 30, 2008 05:23am | #2

   It may not be "black" walnut but regular.

   I couldn't find "regular" walnut in any of the trade publications. Can you elaborate?

   From my understanding there is (domestically - here in the states) black walnut and claro walnut. Claro being a hybrid of the black walnut and growing more or less exclusively in the western part of the US.  There is also english walnut which is usually grafted onto black walnut rootstock, but I doubt you have that unless you paid quite a bit - it's not cheap lumber.

   To the OP: You could try a watered down solution of 2 part wood bleach on a test scrap. Depending on how old the piece you are trying to match is, you may need to tweak it a few times. Alternatively, you could place the new piece in the sun for as little as a few minutes to as much as a few hours. The sun will mellow those dark purple hues in a short amount of time. In fact, that would be what I would try first before the bleach.

   Lee

   Edited 9/29/2008 10:25 pm by mapleman

2. 
   SteveSchoene | Sep 30, 2008 04:05pm | #4

   The mostly commonly available walnut by far is "black walnut" juglans nigra.  Particularly in the West, Claro walnut, Juglan Californica, or grafted walnut from orchards, is also available, but it would never be called "regular walnut".  If a wood is just called walnut at a lumber yard you can bet the ranch it is juglans nigra, since claro etc. sell at a premium. 

3. 
   HowardAcheson | Oct 01, 2008 06:16pm | #9

   American walnut is black walnut. That amount of purple in the wood is primarily dependent on where it was grown. Iowa walnut tends to be very colorful while trees grown in the eastern part of the US tend to be more uniformly brown.I do not know a way to recolor walnut.Howie.........

1. 
   dkellernc | Oct 01, 2008 07:22pm | #10

   For what it's worth, the outershell of the nuts of the black walnut tree are not actually black.  They're bright green when they fall from the tree, and the inside of the husk is a bright yellow-green color that will stain anything it comes in contact with (and it makes a nice brownish-yellow dye when boiled in water).  After a few months on the ground, the husk will turn brownish-black, as will the nuts of almost any other North American hardwood.  The nuts themselves are light tan, with the skin of the meat on the inside a darker brown.  To my knowledge, the nuts and meat don't have any substantial potential as a colorant.

   Funny thing about this thread is that the purplish color the OP referred to is actually a highly prized aspect of air-dried lumber in some circles, and preserving that color is a nearly unreachable goal.  As noted, the chemicals in the wood that give it that color are highly photo-reactive, and turn a much lighter orangish color after significant UV exposure.  Even black walnut finished with a varnish with UV absorbers tends to fade after a couple of years, in my experience.

1. 
   SteveSchoene | Oct 01, 2008 08:58pm | #11

   I must say the walnut shells I remember from my youth, (a walnut tree near the yard in the house where I grew up in Illinois)  look a lot more like these dark brown ones:  http://www.localharvest.org/store/item.jsp?id=3061  though I certainly did see quite a few lighter colored ones elsewhere on the web. 

   My family used to get a quart of picked black walnut meats from Cousin ____ , in northern Missouri who sent quarts to quite a few relations at Christmas.  If you have ever picked out black walnuts, you will see the amount of love that went into those gifts. 

1. 
   dkellernc | Oct 01, 2008 09:27pm | #12

   Yeah, no argument about the amount of work to pick those things out of the shell - I used to have to do it for my grandparents when I was a kid, and kind of hated it.

   What you've linked to is a picture of the nut inside of the husk (thought you were referring to the round ball that comes off of the tree, which are bright green when they fall).  Perhaps my memory is failing me - I remembered the nuts as light tan, but then again, we didn't wait around for them to age, we husked them and split the nuts and picked out the meat all at one time. 

2. 
   ring | Sep 30, 2008 08:14am | #3

   My shop uses a lot of walnut and we often do a bleached finish. The bleaching WILL NOT take out those streaks. On the contrary, they will become more apparent. Try the sunshine route.

   If that fails to give the result you're looking for here's my last-ditch, final solution to the problem. It works but it's very very tricky to do. Make a mild solution of green dye (yes, green) and brush it over the purple area only. The green color will counteract the purple and make it more or less brown. I've used this only when it was absolutely necessary to salvage an essential board. Go carefully and let the dye dry before you judge the result. It's easy to overdo or to step out of the "lines".

   David Ring

   http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e

3. 
   LesT | Oct 01, 2008 02:57am | #5

   I've also found a "purplesh tint" to some of the walnut I've come across. I have used garnet shellac on the walnut and it turns a nice chocolately brown. The garnet shellac is the darkest (I think) form of shellac and has a greenish tinge to it. So, as one post suggested, the green counteracts the purple to make a nice brown. You can then finish however you like, but as a final step I used some dark brown briwax mixed 33% - 67% with Johnsons wax. You can see the bedroom set (with figured maple drawers, etc.) at

   http://www.everlastingfurniture.com/bedroom.htm

   Hope this helps...

   Les

1. 
   wouldeye | Oct 01, 2008 04:08am | #6

   Thanks for all the suggestions. A local "expert" suggested wet sanding with very thinned linseed oil and setting in the sun and flipping every 30-40 minutes. started this morning, worked great. did ruin the pad on my speedblock though, small price to pay. thanks again.

4. 
   jvk | Oct 01, 2008 02:10pm | #7

   Sorry, didn't mean to raise an uproar.  Here in the east I made 3 rocking chairs from 2 different suppliers. I simply asked for walnut.  All 3 rockers were purple colored when built but when you apply the blo, garnet shellac & varnish it all turned to the nice walnut brown coloring. Just simply wetting the wood shows its finish coloring.  I don't understand how setting it in the sun does anything since walnut is one of those rare woods that lightens w/ age.   I assumed "black" walnut was more black than brown. 

   trimjim
1. 
   SteveSchoene | Oct 01, 2008 05:52pm | #8

   No uproar, just a bit of clarification.  I think the black in black walnut comes from the almost black shells on the nuts.  And, the nuts themselves have a quite a bit darker "skin" compared to the light brown of English walnuts.  (And a very distinctive flavor.)

   You are quite right that walnut lightens with age.  But in that lightening process it also does a color shift--more toward orange.  When it is just starting, it would be perceived as making the walnut browner, which, I think, is the direction that was desired.