Black walnut
Deep chocolate brown with a straight, quiet grain.
lbf on the Janka scale
Inside the range we like for boards
Red oak is 210 lbf harder than black walnut, and sits inside the board range too.
Color
Chocolate brown, sometimes with a purple cast; the sapwood nearly white
Where it came from
- Sourced from
- Northwestern Illinois and eastern Iowa
- Dried
- Kiln dried before anything is cut from it.
More about black walnut at The Wood Database · Wood data: The Wood Database (Eric Meier)
Walnut is the wood most people picture when they picture a good board: dark, even, heavy in the hand. It is the dark half of nearly every two-tone piece we make.
How it ages
New walnut can look almost purple under oil. Over a few years it warms toward a lighter, redder brown, and the contrast with any maple beside it softens. Oil brings the depth back for a while each time.
Knife feel
Hard enough to take years of chopping, soft enough not to dull a good edge. Knife marks show as pale lines and close back up with a light sanding and a coat of oil.
