Walnut is quite strong, with a score of 1010 on the Janka scale—comparable to cherry. It is moderately heavy and hard and has a fine, open grain, which is generally straight, although it can be irregular. Color can vary widely, even across the same board, from yellow sapwood to deep chocolate brown heartwood.
Walnut is a darker wood with shades that range from pale browns to dark browns.
If you want a lighter colored board go with Maple, and if you want a darker board go with Walnut. Maple is a slightly higher quality wood with many benefits. Still, despite that, it is a less expensive end product though Walnut offers its own advantages.
Pros: Walnut is a very strong and stable wood that can take intricate carving. The color can be beautiful. Cons: Some may not like the variation from dark to light that's sometimes found on a single wide board. Walnut is also one of the more costly woods.
After all, they're both materials that are popularly used for hardwood flooring. That being said, oak is a slightly stronger hardwood product than walnut. Oak is one of the stronger and more durable natural wood options available for kitchen cabinets. It holds up well resisting significant dents or dings.
The wood of black walnut is dark, hard, dense, and close-grained. Woodworkers value it for its strength, texture, and color. It polishes to an extremely smooth finish and ranges in color from milky white sapwood to dark chocolate heartwood. Natural walnut wood develops a beautiful patina over time.
Cedar – At just 19.7 to 23 pounds per square foot (dry) Cedar is one of the lightest woods.
Maple is generally the lightest colored hardwood. Its grain is very smooth, giving it a modern chic look. Maple is the best choice if you're looking for super blonde wood in its natural form. The color variations of Maple also vary greatly depending on the grade.
Balsa is the lightest and softest timber used commercially. It exhibits an unusually high degree of buoyancy and provides very efficient insulation against heat and sound.
Neutrals infused with earthy tones like green and brown work beautifully here. However, avoid overloading your interiors with too much walnut furniture, especially if it has a dark hardwood floor. Break things up with a neutral area rug or think about neutral upholstery.
New walnut has a consistent dark-brown color but as it gets older, two changes occur. 1: Unlike maple and cherry, it gets lighter. 2: A rich honey color starts to come through the grain. You can see the difference between a new table (left) and a four-year-old table (right).
Old filler is often a problem with oak, walnut, and mahogany. Bleaching can also be used to even the color of a piece of furniture made with two or more woods. It can lighten the darker wood to match the lighter one. Before you use bleach on any piece of furniture, make sure the wood is suitable for bleaching.
Walnut is by definition a hardwood. That means it comes from a deciduous tree (i.e. one that sheds its leaves each autumn) called the black walnut, AKA American walnut. Walnut heartwood has a rich, chocolaty brown color.
The Black Walnut is one of the most expensive and lucrative trees to sell, thanks to its high-quality dark wood. The tree ranges from $5- $10 per board foot, although it can cost more depending on other factors. In most cases, your 20-inch tree can fetch you $700- $800.
The most commonly referenced "heaviest wood", lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale), has a specific gravity of 1.05 when green, which makes its weight about 1365 kg/m3, or 85 pounds per green cubic foot.
Pine is usually a lot lighter than oak due to the density of the wood. Oak, as a hardwood, takes longer to grow and is much denser.
Lighter woods create a more open, airy feel that makes even smaller rooms feel spacious. The extra light that paler woods reflect also helps this. Darker woods, on the other hand, bring a weight to the room that can make the space feel smaller than it is.
Balsa (Ochroma pyramidale) is the lightest and softest commercially sold wood in the world.
Lignum Vitae (Tree of Life): 4,500 Ibf
Lignum Vitae is also known as the tree of life and is one of the hardest and heaviest woods on the planet.
It's common knowledge, but Balsa is indeed the softest and lightest of all commercial woods. Nothing else even comes close. Useful for insulation, buoyancy, and other special applications.
Fatwood is known by a variety of names in English including fatlighter, lighter wood, pine knot, heart pine and occasionally ocote (a loan word from Spanish). In the United States, it is most commonly referred to as Fatwood while in Mexico and Central America as ocote.
Walnut is a tough hardwood of medium density, with moderate bending and crushing strengths, and low stiffness. It has a good steam-bending classification. Reasonable availability. Furniture, cabinets, architectural millwork, doors, flooring, paneling, and gun stocks.
Color/Appearance: Heartwood can range from a lighter pale brown to a dark chocolate brown with darker brown streaks. Color can sometimes have a gray, purple, or reddish cast. Sapwood is nearly white. European Walnut can occasionally also be found with figured grain patterns such as: curly, crotch, and burl.