Darkening walnut sapwood

[Ted Kramer]

So, I have this walnut half stock SMR started, a way to save the wood from going into the boiler this winter. I knew going into the build the butt would have light colored sap wood but it seems to be as solid and dense as the darker wood. What’s a good way to darken the sap wood to somewhat match the rest of the wood?






Thanks.
Ted K

[Austin]

Don’t try to match it until you see what it looks like…. The contrast may be interesting.

[ed lundquist]

Walnut can be fumed with ammonia in an enclosed environment much like oak. It is done industrialy to disguise sapwood. Experiment on scraps as it will darken and possibly change the apearance more than you desire. Good luck.

[whetrock]

I just poked around on the web and found an article that may be useful. This guy was building a table with book-matched pieces that had dark heartwood and light sapwood on the corners. His solution was to first bleach the heartwood, and then also dye the sapwood. His results were quite impressive.

https://ncwoodworker.net/forums/index.php?threads/color-matching-walnut.67803/

The post I'm talking about is in the lower 1/3 of the page. Says he used oxalic acid to bleach the heartwood.

[Ted Kramer]

Thanks for the tips.
The guy’s table top turned out really nice. Very interesting, thank you for for the link whetrock.

[smart dog]

Hi Ted,
I dislike the color of most black walnut so I usually stain it.  I am also often coloring black walnut to look like English by warming it up with a yellow dye before applying finish or other stain.  This is a gun on which the black walnut stock had large areas of light black walnut bordering on sapwood.  You can see in this picture the large lighter area even after staining the stock to blend the light portions.
 


I gradually blended everything by simply tinting the finish with Laurel Mtn Forge's walnut stain.  As I applied more finish to gain the sheen I desired, the color all evened out pretty well and the different shades blended together adding interest rather than look like a block of different wood.













dave

[Ted Kramer]

Dave-
That’s beautiful, thanks for showing it.
When I get back to work on my rifle this fall or winter I’ll try some of the things mentioned.
Ted

[reddogge]

Yes, Dave, that is a huge improvement. I've used aniline dyes on walnut to blend in areas I've done work on to match the existing color and finish. They work great. You can't tell the areas have been taken down to bare wood.

[FALout]

I’ve seen new walnut bleached and then stained so as to match older material in restoration work since older walnut when exposed to lots of sunlight will lose color.  Maybe a paint supply place like Sherwin-Williams could explain how “pro finishers” do it.  You won’t get a darker color per se but maybe more like English walnut lighter color.  If you have some scraps with heart wood you could experiment .

[bluenoser]

I have bleached black walnut to a uniform cream color so that it could be matched to English walnut with dyes when doing restoration work.  It is a two part process using strong hydrogen peroxide and lye.  The components used to be avaiable in a kit and the results are quite impressive.  Still have some left, along with instructions.