Walnut hull staining

[Paddlefoot]

Does anyone remember one of the older books mentioning walnut hulls for staining a curly maple stock. i seem to recall it was in Dillons book. Reason I ask is that Tools For Working Wood has crushed hulls for sale indicating that it is an old traditional stain for furniture.

[Dphariss]

Does anyone remember one of the older books mentioning walnut hulls for staining a curly maple stock. i seem to recall it was in Dillons book. Reason I ask is that Tools For Working Wood has crushed hulls for sale indicating that it is an old traditional stain for furniture.

I have used walnut hull and butternut hull extract, courtesy of Mad Monk, to color match 1870s walnut when a stock was damaged, once some home cooked oil was applied the repair matched the old color on what was a pretty pale piece of walnut. These were an extract can't recall how it was made. Not sure I would use it on maple but I have never tried. This stuff is one of those things I keep for special uses.
But it may give a color you are looking for??? Only one way to find out.
Dan

[Lucky R A]

Cliff,  Walnut hulls, that is the outer husk around the walnut nut is a very strong stain, just ask any of us older kids that used to gather and shuck walnuts.   The stain is the strongest after the green hulls turn dark brown and start to rot off the nuts, the time for shucking.  The hulls were gathered into a galvanized bucket and allowed to seep in water to cover, then set over a fire to boil down and concentrate.   We used the stain like log wood to color traps for trapping.  A number of re-enactors use the same stain to color cloth a nice "nut brown."   I have used it to add color to walnut.  It is basically a water based stain and thus will raise the grain of the wood you are working on.  I have not tried it on maple, but my guess is that the result will be a rather light brown color.   If you post a photo of your hands dyed a nice brown we will know that you have been shuckin walnuts.    Ron

[Clowdis]

I've seen this stain look pretty good initially but turn sort of a green tint after it begins to age. It could have been the "recipe" used or the hulls may have been a bit green to begin with, don't know, but approach with caution.

[Mad Monk]

Back when I started playing with the whole stock stain project I looked at walnut hull dye on curly maple.  Did some test blocks with curly maple and set them out back to see how they would weather.

The dye from the walnut hulls is very resistant to fading from sunlight.

But what I found was that the depth of color would change.  The dye does not bond to the wood fibers.  As the moisture content of the wood changed the dye would migrate into the wood and than back to the surface.  Simply following the flow of moisture (water) in and out of the wood.  The panels would shift between light and dark brown.

I never investigated if there was some way to mordant the dye to the wood fibers to keep it from moving with the moisture.

I do know that when walnut hull dye is used on cotton it tends to wash out of the fabric fairly fast. 


E. Ogre

[Paddlefoot]

Thanks guys.  I never dealt with walnuts so much out here but my mom has pecan trees at her house and of course those need to be shucked too. I make a pretty good pecan pie so my hands were pretty brown sometimes. We never tried to use the hulls to stain any wood so I wasn't sure how dark it could get or how durable it might be.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

my pull over hunting shirt is stained in walnut hull dye.  when new it was quite dark, but now is only lightly stained.
i made wood and leather stain from spruce bark.  i broke off the dry outer bark from a white spruce tree and let it soak in concentrated ammonia for several years.  when applied to wood, the colour is a medium dark brown.  it seems quite uv resistant.  sure clears the sinuses.

[Paddlefoot]

Dang Taylor that sounds even slower and stinkyer than vinegar/iron stain

[rich pierce]

i made wood and leather stain from spruce bark.  i broke off the dry outer bark from a white spruce tree and let it soak in concentrated ammonia for several years.  when applied to wood, the colour is a medium dark brown.  it seems quite uv resistant.  sure clears the sinuses.

it's amazing any of us are still married, when you stop and think about it.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

paddlefoot...yeah...your stuff smells like  a horsebarn.

[Dale Campbell]

I wonder if part of the attraction of walnut hull dyeing for cloth was the repellent  effect of walnut on fleas.  Walnut twigs and sawdust (wood itself) will repel fleas, so maybe the dye does too?  Not carrying the little buggers (literal term) around had to be more pleasant back in the day.

Anyone want to test it?  I'll pass.