Author Topic: Carving Walnut (Read 7404 times)

andy49 · « **on:** November 11, 2014, 03:13:57 AM »

I am laying out designs and test carvings for a pistol in Walnut. Low relief carving barely shows up. Incised carvings appear a little better. I am looking for suggestions on how other builders approach Walnut.
Is there anyway to darken the incised carving?
Andy

Acer Saccharum · « **Reply #1 on:** November 11, 2014, 05:04:01 AM »

You may see more results to your liking when you get into the finishing. A wipe on and wipe off of a dark pigment will make the crevices of the carved forms stand out.

Micah2 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 11, 2014, 05:20:11 AM »

Incised will show up the best, keep the tools super sharp walnut can tear out easy with less than sharp tools.

Jim Kibler · « **Reply #3 on:** November 11, 2014, 06:19:41 PM »

No reason why relief carving won't work well on walnut. Good carving techniques and finishing and it will look just fine.

Jim

Acer Saccharum · « **Reply #4 on:** November 11, 2014, 07:04:39 PM »

There is a wide range of quality and density in walnut. If you're going to want relief carving, do a test on the wood before you invest all the time in stocking.

I've had walnut that is almost a softwood, and other pieces that are as hard as sugar maple.

jerrywh · « **Reply #5 on:** November 11, 2014, 07:58:37 PM »

Acer is exactly correct. There is only one thing I would add to his comment. The very best walnut is better than the very best maple when it comes to carving and checkering. It is also much more expensive. Personally I would never put any stain on walnut. When you put the finish on the detail will come out.

PPatch · « **Reply #6 on:** November 11, 2014, 08:08:32 PM »

However, if you do use a stain here is a trick to aid in bringing out the highlights: Wipe on the stain lightly then immediately scrub the stock with a crumpled up paper bag or rough cloth presenting a new surface of the bag or cloth as you go. This will "mostly" remove the stain except were it quickly soaked into the grain in the darker areas (raising or end grain). Use light coats of stain each application (it may only take one) and take it to where you like it. I have just done this on walnut this morning, doing some stain and finishing testing. The walnut I'm working with is very chippy so sharp tools are a must when carving.

dave

Jim Kibler · « **Reply #7 on:** November 11, 2014, 08:13:13 PM »

It's always interesting the different views we have. Personally it would be a rare piece of walnut that I wouldn't stain to some degree. Much of the unstained walnut I've seen looks pale and weak. Even with more natural and traditional finishes. But this stuff is very subjective and what looks good to one person may not to another. Mitch Yates has made some nice walnut stocked guns with carving and stained with iron nitrate (aquafortis) I believe. I recall color looked really good to my eye. I've recently experimented with straight nitric diluted to around 20% on walnut. I thought it looked really good. Thanks James Rogers.

Jim

Acer Saccharum · « **Reply #8 on:** November 11, 2014, 08:32:11 PM »

Walnut varies in color, too. I've seen it run from light brown to a very dark chocolately brown.

This underscores the importance of picking out your wood in person, or by talking directly with your supplier about your needs.

andy49 · « **Reply #9 on:** November 12, 2014, 03:36:16 AM »

Thanks for the responses. The walnut I use is Claro Walnut from a mill in Oregon. I pick out what I want from their mill end pile (shorts) for pistols. The wood is very nice and runs about $25 per gun if I can get multiple blanks out of one piece. It works fairly well but finishes (peramalyn sealer) on the dark side. I am not getting carvings to show up very well.
Andy

jerrywh · « **Reply #10 on:** November 12, 2014, 05:29:26 PM »

There are hundreds of very fine examples of walnut carvings on English, French and German guns in the 18th century.
Look in the Jaeger book that Jim Chambers sells. In the light of all that evidence it is hard for me to understand how anyone can say that walnut does not carve very well. The problem comes from the particular piece of wood one has picked out. Ron Scott is one of the very best wood carvers in the world today on gunstocks and After trying to determine his secret for a few years I decided one reason is because he is better at selecting his wood than most of the rest. It is impossible to carve poor wood well. If one wants to make a $20,000.00 gun it is best to get a $1000.00 piece of wood. $200.00 and $300.00 wood just won't do. Just try 28 line pr. in. Checkering on a cheep piece of wood. Take a look at some of the checkering on some of Boutet's pistols and shotguns. It is as fine as any today. You can't do that on maple. Most black walnut isn't that good either.

Acer Saccharum · « **Reply #11 on:** November 12, 2014, 06:47:10 PM »

That carving is exquisite and complicated. It shows up well because the light reflecting off the carving highlights, the dark around the carving, contrasting against a smooth background.

Should the wood be very dark, you will be relying mostly on the reflected light for the carving to show up.

Polished carving tools will leave polished cuts, which will accent the carving to its fullest. You don't need great height on carving, it merely needs to catch the light to create the illusion of three dimensionality.

Jim Kibler · « **Reply #12 on:** November 12, 2014, 06:59:59 PM »

No, you don't have to have great height on caving, but to create some designs you need it. For example, the photo Jerry posted above... This must have been relieved pretty high to get the shape. Probably between 1/16"-1/8". Higher carving that is not sculpted well looks awful. Much worse than flatter low carving. Higher carving with proper shaping can be wonderful. Sorry if I'm being a bit argumentative. One of those pet peeves...

sz · « **Reply #13 on:** November 12, 2014, 07:09:22 PM »

I agree that you need hard dense wood to do good fine detail in wood, but I can't say I have ever had to buy $1000 wood, and I also disagree that you can't do it in maple.
I have carved a lot of hard maple and done well.
This one is walnut.

This one is maple.

I am not the world’s best wood carver, but I am not terrible either.

Acer Saccharum · « **Reply #14 on:** November 12, 2014, 07:27:54 PM »

No argument here.

andy49 · « **Reply #15 on:** November 13, 2014, 03:14:37 AM »

SZ
That is fantastic carving job. Do you apply a sealer/finish on the wood prior to carving as they usually do on modern firearms then refinish?
Andy

sz · « **Reply #16 on:** November 13, 2014, 06:16:24 AM »

No Andy.
I sand the surface down to 320 grit before I lay out my patterns. At 320 grit it's easy to draw on the wood, and if I want to erase I simply use a piece of 320 paper to sand the pencil off.

If the wood is hard and dense you need nothing but Tung oil on walnut.

On maple I stain I soak the surface with a mix of 50/50 Boiled linseed oil and paint thinner. Let it stand wet for about 15 minutes and then wipe it down with paper towels and then brush it out with a soft tooth brush.
I let it cure 2 days before I go to the 2nd coat.

I then go to low gloss tung oil over the linseed. If you ever need to touch up your finish the alcohol based stains will go through Linseed oil, but not through tung without coming out lighter. So bay having linseed in the wood on top of the stain you can match the finish years later.

Captchee · « **Reply #17 on:** November 13, 2014, 04:14:18 PM »

IMO its more about the piece of wood you chose vs the type of wood .
simply put a harder more dense piece is what one needs to be looking for .
thus if the plank meets that criteria then even black walnut can carve very nicely .
also as was mentioned , you dont have to make the carving deep in order to give the effect of deep carving

I also don’t believe maple carves as well as a good piece of walnut . This isn’t to say that one cannot produce nice carvings in maple . It just takes alittle more work to clean it up so as to give a nice crisp look . But then again , the harder the maple , the better the result

Acer Saccharum · « **Reply #18 on:** November 13, 2014, 07:38:26 PM »

Engish Walnut is the darned nicest wood to carve. I heard mahogany is good, tho' I never tried it.

Hard maple takes to carving, but you must be ever vigilant on the grain direction.

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Author Topic: Carving Walnut (Read 7404 times)

andy49

Micah2

andy49

andy49