staining walnut

[bbaude]

Folks,

When at my local "mill" the other day, I was buying some walnut for a project for my niece.  The dude their who I have gotten to know a little bit suggested that I use a light walnut stain on the finished piece to help it remain dark because it will fade over time.

I was curious if folks do this ... and if so, what do you like to use.  In the past I have always just done poly so the grain can come through.  Never thought much about staining walnut in part because I have several pieces from my grandparents that my father and I have refinished where they had used that thick white paint back in the day over walnut.  Gasp!

[Tommy Hall]

I did not relies how Walnut fades till recently, I went back and looked at different pieces and the ones I stained to bring the different pieces of wood to look better together look much better, so I think he is correct.  I use a walnut dye so it can be controlled, a little bit at a time.  I have also done this with Wenge and Mahogany, I use Behlen dyes and find them controllable.

Tommy Hall

Amesbury, MA

[Chet]

I just use General Finishes Arm-R-Seal on walnut.  Its amber in color and gives walnut a nice warm look and brings out the grain.  Its a wipe on product that is pretty simple to use.  I don't think, for the most part, that too many people here stain their walnut projects.  That doesn't mean you can't. 

[Coop]

I agree with Chet. If you’re going to use walnut stain, do it on poplar and sell it to your novice woodworking friends. Don’t screw with Mona Lisa. 

[Chestnut]

Ecclesiastes always comes to mind when someone talks about trying to fight wood changing color over time. Everything is meaningless and we all die in the end. I'm not sure that dying the walnut is going to stop it from lightening. If you dye it dark enough so that after it bleaches it's still dark you'd have a very dark piece of furniture for the years it takes to lighten. This is coming from a very biased person that thinks walnut starts off too dark.

Where is your mill at? How much are you paying for walnut? Just curious.

[Tom King]

Never have.  Never will.  All the old Walnut furniture (some of it 200 years old) I work on has never been stained, and it's pretty daggone dark.   I built our kitchen cabinets out of Walnut in 1980, and they still look like Walnut to me.

[Isaac]

I have heard of this before and would try it. I've had walnut pieces fade to a golden brown and I preferred the original darker brown.

[Unknown craftsman]

I've noticed the same as Tom . And I've wondered if it's air dried or the finish eventually oxidizes and turns dark. I do think shellac might darken over time.

Ive added trans tint to my shellac to darken walnut.Wasnt particularly proud of it but it worked and my customer was happy. I believe the color was brown mahogany. A little goes a long way.

The walnut I see around here is very light brown and steamed in a kiln. Very boring ,hope you guys have better looking stuff.

Aj

[Gilgaron]

I haven't actually gotten around to trying it out yet, but I did buy some walnut crystals made from walnut husks with the intent to see how it looked on some walnut scraps.  I thought it might be fun to make it a little darker while still avoiding sacrilege! 

[bbaude]

hey thanks for all the input ... i hope that i didnt lead anyone to believe the guy was saying adding stain would fix the problem of lightening. he only suggested it would possibly appear to fade less.  i think going without stain is the general answer, unless you need some to try and do some matching.