Stain Walnut? Are You Crazy?!

The answer is, only a little. And, yes sometimes we do stain walnut and this is why (and how).

First off, for those that don’t know, walnut has a chocolatey brown heartwood that is known for its rich color and is often finished without adding color because it is pretty on its own. Sounds simple enough, it looks great, why mess with it? Well, there are four reasons to stain walnut:

1. Color Consistency. Walnut not only has dark heartwood, but like all other woods, has a light colored ring of sapwood on the outside of the log. Depending on the cut, walnut lumber may contain streaks of nearly white sapwood. Even if the lumber does not contain sapwood, areas near the sapwood can appear much lighter in color. Walnut heartwood also varies in color from tree to tree. Some lean towards more red, some green and some purple. Staining the wood will make lumber from different trees and different areas of the same tree have the same hue and have a similar range of shade.
2. Increased yield. If walnut is not stained, the only way to keep a piece in the dark color range is to remove all sapwood. To keep from having to trim off all of the sapwood, commercially produced walnut is steamed to darken the sapwood. Even though the steaming process makes the sapwood darker and more like the heartwood, without stain the color difference will be much more noticeable. Staining the wood will make much more of the tree usable, since both the heartwood and sapwood can all be used.
3. Longer lasting color. Walnut is one of the few woods I know of that lightens in color as it ages. When stained the brown color will hold tight for much, much longer.
4. It stains great. This isn’t really a reason to stain walnut, but it is worth noting. Walnut accepts all stains well. As long as the surface is sanded properly, staining is a breeze. No splotchy wood here.

When staining walnut, I like to use a mix of Special Walnut and Dark Walnut from Minwax. I feel like Special Walnut is a little too brown with most of the color coming from brown pigment and the Dark Walnut is a bit too black with most of the color coming from black dye. But, when mixed together, they are the perfect blend of color and penetration, which makes the walnut color more consistent and keeps the wood looking like walnut without hiding the grain.

We stain walnut commonly in applications with plywood, like commercial millwork, to provide consistency to the job over multiple products and to give the project a deeper, richer walnut tone. We also stain walnut lumber, like the table in the video below for the same reasons. I think the stain does an excellent job of bringing the entire project together, while not hiding the walnut lumber.

Click on the video below to see how the walnut looks after it is stained and finished.