I know this is the GunSmithing forum, but I figure we have some Walnut stock experts hanging around. I just had a pedestal cabinet made out of Walnut. It was supposed to be Black Walnut. Some of the pieces are a reddish/rose/almost pinkish color and the cabinet maker said the color came out after he put the finish on it. It is very bright when compared to the greyish/purpleish dark brown of the other pieces. Anyone run into this with walnut blanks for rifles? Will it darken later? Thanks

Can you post photos? That would help a lot.

Here are some photos. The wood was supposed to be Black Walnut. I have seen white in black walnut, but wasn't prepared to see the red tone. Am I just being too picky and this is normal?

This is of the corner, where the 2 different colors come together:



You can see the color of Walnut I am used to on the panel and the other color on the rails:



This photo is with no flash (the top is washed out by sun):



Any opinions on wood type or if you think it will darken some is appreciated.

I have seen black walnut look like that before.

It's not unusual to have that variation. I would have chosen lumber that matched better in color if I were building it. The contrast in colors won't change over time

That contrast is the beauty of real wood..looks like nice work! and..no..it won't "age" or "change" much

Thanks for the responses. I had never seen such red black walnut and was a little troubled by it. Don't get me wrong, the base looks nice, but isn't the furniture look I had wanted. Anyway, the Cabinet Maker didn't realize the hue until he finished it. He nocked 25% off the cost and was very apologetic. Thanks for easing my concerns.

I use quite a bit of black walnut in my house I'm building and see a lot of varous colors from red to brown to light and iut's all walnut!

One thing I do to lightly darken wood is to make a bit of my own sander sealer.....I mix 50-50 a solution of mineral spirits and polyerethane and use as sander sealer.....this does darken the wood some!

A bit of boiled linseed oil will also darken wood.....in some cases eithger of these will darken severely.....try a piece before going whole hog!

Wood is Wood Is Wood !. Same species in the same stand of trees will vary as to color mineral deposit ( Streaks ) and grain configurations !.

Heart too Sap wood can be drastic color changes as with grain . It appears one of your pieces has a small amount of Sap wood on it's edge .

If an " Over All Color " is desired ?, then I would suggest a lacquer alcohol type stain . Some times referred to as a " Masking Stain " Aniline dye soluble in those solvents .

This is what Most major Furniture manufactures use to Tone their products to give an " Even appearance " to their products .

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

quote:

Originally posted by dempsey:
It's not unusual to have that variation. I would have chosen lumber that matched better in color if I were building it. The contrast in colors won't change over time

This pretty well covers it... I'm not a smith but I do much woodworking for myself, friends and family... I always get all the wood together for a project and match everything up as well as I can before I start working on it... I'm glad to hear that he gave you a deep discount on it though...

As stated elsewhere here, there are ways to "darken" or change things but it can be very tricky... Oils, even stains will produce different results even on the same board because the grain changes along the way and that's the tricky part...

Ken....

Thanks again for all the responses. I appreciate it.