Walnut Plywood

Walnut Plywood has a long history in woodworking, especially furniture making, where its use dates back to England before the settlement of the American colonies.

Much of the quality furniture sold and manufactured in the early history of America was made of black walnut, an American variety of this English favorite. While oak enjoyed several decades as the number one wood, partially due to its low cost, walnut is now gaining popularity.

Walnut’s popularity stems from being the only dark-colored domestic hardwood, although American Willow leans towards the dark side. This makes it so that of all the dark-colored hardwoods available for woodworkers to purchase and use, walnut is the least expensive to purchase and buy now.

Quality vs Cost

Depending on the quantity sold and where it is purchased, it ranges from $7.99 to $12.99 per board foot, with the lower prices mostly coming from purchases from bulk suppliers. But for those who make a lot of furniture, buying 100 board feet of lumber in any quantity to keep stock on hand is not a severe problem.

Color

Walnut is a fine-grained wood, largely straight-grained but with some waves and curls. Depending on the thickness of the boards purchased, it can combine a dark chocolate-colored heartwood with a caramel-colored sapwood. Finished projects finish to a highly smooth surface with a high luster.

It is also highly durable, more scratch and dent-resistant than even red oak, known for its extremely durable wood. Walnut is one of the few woods which will lighten up over time. Some furniture-makers overcome this tendency of walnut by applying walnut stains to their finished projects before varnishing. The use of stain can also help to darken the sapwood, giving the entire project a more even appearance.

The black or American walnut plywood tree grows throughout the eastern part of the United States. However, it only accounts for about one percent of plywood product’s total wood production, driving the price up. Trees mature at 150 years, reaching a height of as much as 150 feet, with a trunk diameter of 8 feet. The slow growth and low amount of the tree also drive the price of the walnut plywood hardwood up.

Cost

Because of the cost, walnut is often used in veneer form, either veneering directly onto other, lower-cost hardwoods or as a a sheet of hardwood plywood. Even in a veneer form, the durability of walnut remains, which makes it one of the ideal woods for making furniture, as is proven by the vast number of pieces of antique walnut furniture that has not only survived but is still in excellent condition.

Building an Item

Building an item, a table, out of a sheet of walnut hardwood plywood with hardwood edges, for example, balances the opposing forces of making quality furniture while keeping the price per item down for customers. Veneering furniture has long been considered an acceptable means of extending available wood resources and decreasing furniture item prices. Walnut plywood veneer stock is available in sheets up to 8 to 12’ long.

As with plywood products, walnut is available with either plain sliced or rotary cut face veneer options, giving customers and the woodworker a more excellent selection of options in the finished appearance of the product.

Plain-sliced veneer products will have a more obvious grain pattern, as the process of cutting the sheet veneer crosses the rings of the log, while rotary cutting goes around the rings. However, as trees are not perfectly symmetrical, rotary cutting can produce some dramatic cathedral grain patterns.

Walnut veneer plywood chair, Rocor

Walnut plywood is typically available in ¼” thickness each, ½” and ¾” thicknesses, and Canada sold with either veneer core or combination veneer & MDF core.

Birch cores are standard in the former plywood product, virtually eliminating the problems of voids and knots in plywood. In the case of the latter plywood product, a thin layer of MDF is applied as the outer veneer, just under the face and back veneers of plywood.

This provides an extremely smooth surface for the plywood veneer to be applied to, helping to create plywood and, therefore, a superior finish.

Visual Side

Visually, walnut and black walnut are virtually identical species, especially after the finish. As any wood product has variance in coloration anyway, the two species can be used together in a project without it causing any problems.

Durability

While one might think that walnut and plywood products would not be as durable, due to the thickness of the walnut face veneer being so thin, it is a remarkably durable product, as the thickness of the face veneer still resists scratching and denting.

While walnut is a tight-grained wood, considerably different from the open grain of oak, it can still benefit from using a paste wood filler to add something to fill the pores in the wood.

Properly tinted, the paste wood filler will bring out the grain in the wood even more pronouncedly. At the same time, the thickness of the wood filler helps provide a smoother surface, giving the overall project a glass-like finish.

Varnish is the preferred finish for furniture products made out of walnut plywood, with walnut plywood with a matte finish varnish being the most popular. Hand-rubbed varnish is hard to beat for an ideal walnut plywood finish.

But note that this product is not the only finish that can be used on projects made of walnut plywood. Tung Oil is another popular finish for walnut plywood, especially for non-furniture applications.