Claro Walnut. A west coast tree, should be available in OR. It's lighter and more reddish, costs 3x as much as black walnut. Two trays 1a is claro walnut, 4a is black walnut.

 

I assume the one on the left is Claro. Good comparison & nice work.

 

All walnut with turn color with light exposure over time to almost a blonde color. I know why spend the money... I use trans tint dark walnut dye, (provides some UV protection)

8 drops per oz, and and actually stain my walnut. Do samples to see what you like. Maybe even be the mad scientist and create a unique combination that may give you the tint you are looking for. It evens out the sap wood some and protects from the color change.

 

All walnut with turn color with light exposure over time to almost a blonde color. I know why spend the money...

I agree, walnut fades with time, but it's slow.
Yes, the left one is Claro. Who knows what they do with photos on the internet, color can be all over the place.

 

My belief is walnut gets most of its color from the soil it’s growing. English walnut I’ve seen is lighter color with more green and purple.
The real color of the tree is before it’s kiln dried. Air dried walnut is full of subtle colors and is a joy to work.

 

"Old" walnut does not change color much due to light exposure. These carvings made use of walnut from a bookcase 70+ years old. The finish is water-based poly (no UV blocker).

 

Air dried black walnut often has more of a reddish brown color also.

 

I believe much of the kiln dried commercial black walnut is steamed to darken the sapwood. Makes the wood look muddy.

 

I see a lot of pictures of "black walnut" furniture and cabinetry that has a reddish-brown color.

As pointed out above walnut can naturally very in color and then add the air dried vs steamed but I doubt that is what you are seeing since you mentioned furniture and cabinetry.

Simply a dyeing process to generate a "walnut" color and it is often all over the place. It can even out the differences between the sap and heart wood to create a "walnut" color. I see walnut pieces that look nothing like walnut in my opinion but depending on the quality of wood better option than using poor quality, in regards to color, wood.

Various methods are used. As described above a single walnut stain may be applied then others use a multistep method where the wood is dyed first with something orange/red/yellow then sealed (orange shellac at times) then a gel stain or similar (mahogany was popular with some) applied and wiped off to leave additional color. One can find all sort of recipes and methods to achieve a these walnut colors. There is a huge difference in the final product depending on ones experience, lighting, eyesight, and knowledge. Take the same process and one guy will have a beautiful piece with warm colored hues barely highlighting the warmth of walnut and then other guy will have some strange fake mahogany looking piece.

 

I found out at a sawmill tour this week that if they steam walnut, it will come out of the kiln lighter. It is better to air dry it, I think!!

 

I like air dried wood also in regards to color. Steaming walnut ends up generating the most useable board feet of lumber that will sell to the general woodworker. We end up with a mainly uniform in color product that in most cases does not exhibit the color and hue of air dried wood. It allows inferior trees/wood to make it to the market quickly and helps keep prices lower at a trade off. The general consumer isn't going to spend the money for quality heartwood walnut nor do they want to buy wood with lots of white sap wood and dark colored wood. To cut out sap wood ends up with even more waste.

I end up with free logs so end up resawing and airdrying them but stuck with small boxes and such or smaller bowls (once the sap wood is removed). Color is always good. Now if I was building furniture pieces the consistency and better predictability of behavior of a proper kiln dried product starts to become an important aspect and of course consistency of color (dye the wood) as don't want someone a few years down the road contacting you because color is varying in the piece.

 

Locking down a specific wood color is a very tough task, especially with Walnut!

- Walnut brown is prone to extreme UV fading. Leave walnut and cherry in a sunny location side by side, and the walnut will be lighter than the cherry eventually. How long this takes depends on amount of UV. Direct sunlight sitting outside, it only takes a couple weeks.

- Commercial sawyers steam walnut to blend the white sap wood into the brown heart wood, attempting to make it look more consistent;. This washes out the heart wood color and gives it a gray cast before finishing. Oil based finishes will return some of the brown color, but it will never be as rich and varied as air dried walnut.

-Claro walnut from west coast always starts darker than American black walnut. But it fades just the same. South American walnut tends to slight towards dark/black brown; but it also fades with UV exposure

- Wood color is fickle beast. It is always changing, and varies greatly tree to tree and forest to forest for same species. Matching wood colors is several full time jobs at most furniture mfg.

- If you want to see the vast range of possible walnut colors, surf over to Hobbit House wood picture archive.

+1 If want consistent and lasting "walnut brown"; use a dye stain to achieve the desired color, and then you must seal the color with UV blocking top coat. You will never regret learning how to use dye strains to color walnut.

I color all my 'brown' walnut projects with Behlen Solar Lux or Mohawk Ultra-penetrating NGR dye stains. It is only way to fix gray from steaming, even out color differences, and reduce the UV fading. If I want natural walnut 'brown' on air dried lumber, prefer to use a garnet shellac as sealer, or as entire top coat to bring out natural beauty. But this natural color will not last forever if the project is used in room with lots of windows and UV exposure. Walnut furniture is great for dimly lit lawyers office, but lousy for bright and sunny family room.

Color is subjective, so YMMV

 

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions & info. Lots of good ideas.
It looks like I need to experiment with some different kinds of walnut, some dye stain, sun bleaching, and air dried vs steamed vs 'regular'. We have some really good lumber sources in Portland so I think I can get air dried and maybe some steamed samples.
You might be wondering why I want the lighter stuff when I have local access to Willamette Valley and Claro black walnut. I really like the look of walnut and some projects look better with the lighter look where the grain stands out more, for others, the dark is beautiful.

 

Goby Walnut in Portland has an amazing selection of various types of walnut. Check out this article on their site:

A Brief History of Oregon Black Walnut | Goby Walnut

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OREGON BLACK WALNUT When I started working at Goby, I didn’t know that Oregon Black walnut even existed. I thought that walnut wood came from walnut trees, and that was it. I didn’t know the difference between Eastern black walnut, English walnut, Claro walnut, Oregon Black...

gobywalnut.com

 

Thanks for the link. Goby is a great source. I hadn't seen that link before. My latest piece was from Sustainable Northwest Wood & they labeled it "Willamette Valley Walnut" beautiful figure which I am using for a small drop-leaf table.

 

If its a dresser or a cabinet you are looking at that is a darker walnut than normal there are lots of places where guys just don't stain but used stain only where things will show. There lots of places you can find that is still the original wood with nothing applied