Uses: Walnut is commonly used for furniture, musical instruments, carvings, trims and veneers. Advantages: durable, long lasting wood.
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.
Walnut has great weather resistance because of its hardness and durability class 3. Untreated walnut wood can have an outdoor life of up to 15 years. Walnut wood comes in different variants.
Unlike cherry, maple, and oak (which all darken in color as they age), walnut wood will actually lighten slightly over time.
Walnut is lovely wood, especially when carefully air dried so as to preserve the rich chocolate, purple and black tones in the best of it. HOWEVER, It fades like mad in sunlight. Furniture is touched by sunlight. Therefore, the lovely colors of the walnut go away — and it doesn't take centuries.
Black walnut wood is coveted for its colors and striations as much as its heartiness and durability. A black walnut piece of furniture will last for decades to come (if taken care of). But black walnuts aren't just pretty as furnishings. The trees themselves are beautiful and larger than life.
A walnut countertop will be waterproof after it is sealed properly. With the proper care, your walnut wood will not warp or cup either. Walnut is known for its strength and stability. It has a distinctive color and is relatively easy to maintain.
Rot Resistance: Black Walnut is rated as very durable in terms of decay resistance, though it is susceptible to insect attack. Workability: Typically easy to work provided the grain is straight and regular. Planer tearout can sometimes be a problem when surfacing pieces with irregular or figured grain.
Is American Black Walnut good for outdoor use? or is American Black Walnut good for exterior use? American Black Walnut is most suited for interior/interior use. American Black Walnut can be used as an exterior/external timber (without treatment).
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.
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.
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.
Durability. Walnut is rated at a 1010 on the Janka Hardness Scale. European Oak is a 1360 on the same scale. This means that Oak is more durable than Walnut and will stand up better against constant use and daily wear and tear.
They are a very hard nut, and no, you're not going to easily crack them with one of those simple tabletop nutcrackers you see in a bowl of holiday nuts on the coffee table at Christmas time. That is just not the best tool for the job, and if you try to crack them that way you'll likely come to the same conclusion…
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.
Choose Rot Resistant Wood for Your Project
Well-known domestic examples include cedar, redwood, old-growth cypress, mulberry, yew, osage orange, and black locust. Tropical wood examples include ipe, lignumvitae, purpleheart, and old-growth teak.
Naturally resistant woods that are commercially available include black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), teak (Tectona grandis), ipe (Tabebuia spp.), California redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and bald cypress (Taxodium distichum). These have the highest resistance to rot over time.
Care and Maintenance of Walnut
All walnut pieces need a good regular dusting. It's best to avoid commercial cleaners. These can leave residue on lacquered wood or damage oil and wax finishes. Oil finished furniture does best with the application of natural linseed oil once a year.
Tung oil varnish is a highly popular oil-based finish for walnut that offers excellent durability and water resistance, while simultaneously enhancing the natural beauty of the wood without significantly altering its hue. This type is chosen by many as the best oil finish for walnut.
Wood Furniture
Hardwoods like teak tend to last years (50+) longer than softwoods (20+) like cedar or pressure-treated pine.
Teak wood easily lasts the longest when used for outdoor furniture or decking.
Over time, however, the natural dark color of walnut wood can lighten and fade due to exposure to sunlight and other environmental factors. This fading can result in the wood taking on a lighter, more yellowish-brown color.