History: Black Walnut

Source of version: 49 (current)

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!The Tree
The Black Walnut tree is one of the best known and most valuable of all forest trees native to the United States. It is of value not only because of its beautiful and highly prized wood but for its delicious nuts used in foods such as candy, bread, cakes, and ice cream. It is strictly an American tree, growing naturally nowhere else. It has been proposed frequently as our national tree and has been known for generations as the “tree of the gods and kings.” In 1945 a Black Walnut tree in Kentucky was sold alive for $1,500 and was cut up into veneers worth $35,000. The stumps of some large trees have been sold at fabulous prices for use as veneers. Black Walnut is usually a well-shaped tree of moderately rapid growth for a hardwood, and attains large size. It is not uncommon to find walnut trees 100 feet tall and three feet in diameter. The tree requires deep, rich, moist, but well drained soils. The bark is dark and rather deeply grooved. The leaves are one to two feet long, and have 15 to 23 narrow, sharply-toothed, slender-pointed leaﬂets. The nuts, which are one and one-eighth to one and one-half inches in diameter, have a very hard deeply grooved shell encased in a ball-like hull, from one and one-half to two inches in diameter, consisting of a black, thick pulp having a mottled, light green covering. The nuts within the pulp must be removed with care as the pulp stains everything it touches and is difﬁcult to remove before it is thoroughly dried. A yellow dye is made from the bark, and husks of the nuts.

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!Common Names in Use
* Black Walnut (N.H., Vt., Mass. R.I., Conn., N.Y., N.J., Del., Pa., Va., W.Va., N.C., Tenn., Ga., Fla., Ala., Miss., Tex., La., Ark., Ky., Mo., Ind., Ill., Kans., Nebr., Iowa, Mich., Ohio, S.Dak., Minn., Ontario)
* American Black Walnut (trade)
* American Walnut (trade)
* Dent-soo-kwa-no-ne "Round Nut" (N.Y. Indians)
* Gun-Wood (trade)
* Walnut (N.Y., Del., W.Va., Fla., Ky., Tenn., Mo., Ohio, Ind., Iowa)
* Walnut-tree (Pa., S.C.)

!Growth Range
The natural growth range of Black Walnut extends from Massachusetts to southern Ontario and central Nebraska southward throughout the eastern half of the United States, excepting the Atlantic coastal plain south of Virginia, the Gulf coast region, and the lower Mississippi Valley. It attains its best growth in the central portion of this range in deep, rich, moist and well-drained soils. 

!The Wood
The Black Walnut heartwood varies somewhat from light to dark chocolate brown with frequent alternate light and almost black stripes which produce very beautiful figured effects. The narrow sapwood is nearly white with a narrow shading into the darker heartwood and gradually turns darker upon exposure. This wood is hard, strong, works well with tools and is one of the most desirable and useful of all American woods. The darker the wood the more valuable it is, and for this reason it is a quite frequent practice to stain or steam the sapwood to match the heartwood. Also, the stain is sometimes forced through the entire board to produce the more valuable deep dark brown color. The crotches, burls and stumps produce exceptional ﬁgured and mottled designs and are very valuable for high quality veneers. The knots, crooks, irregular growth and curly or wavy grain, especially near the knots, produce handsome ﬁgures. In the burls of old mature trees the bird’s-eye effect on a glossy jet black to lighter shades of brown is frequently found. The wood ﬁnishes to a pleasing velvety sheen, glues satisfactorily, and polishes exceptionally well with all types of paint, stain, wax or other ﬁnishingmaterials. It holds its shape, and after being seasoned, shrinks or swells very little. 

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!Uses
Black Walnut is superior to all other woods for gun stocks because it keeps its shape, is comparatively light in weight, and absorbs recoil the best of all woods. The most important use of the lumber and of the beautiful ﬁgured veneers is in furniture, radio and television cabinets, sewing machines, wooden novelties and general mill-work. It is an especially desirable wood to work with all kinds of tools, and is a favorite wood in all Home Work Shops and Manual Training Schools. Walnut wood is so valuable that it is mainly cut into veneers. It is No.1 on the wood list of every woodworking shop.

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{img type="fileId" fileId="471" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Black Walnut Card Box by Gerald Lawrence" alt="card storage" responsive="y" stylebox="border"}
{img type="fileId" fileId="472" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Walnut Cutting Boards by Gerald Lawrence" alt="cutting boards" responsive="y" stylebox="border"}
{img type="fileId" fileId="473" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Black Walnut dovetail box by Gerald Lawrence" alt="dovetail box" responsive="y" stylebox="border"}

{img type="fileId" fileId="474" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Black Walnut Hollow Form by Gerald Lawrence" alt="walnut vessel" responsive="y" stylebox="border"}
{img type="fileId" fileId="475" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Black Walnut Recipe Box by Gerald Lawrence" alt="recipe box" responsive="y" stylebox="border"}
{img type="fileId" fileId="476" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Black Walnut Ring Containers by Gerald Lawrence" alt="ring containers" responsive="y" stylebox="border"}
{img type="fileId" fileId="477" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Black Walnut Bowl by Lewis Kauffman" alt="bowl" responsive="y" stylebox="border"}

{img type="fileId" fileId="478" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Black Walnut Bowls by Lewis Kauffman" alt="bowls" responsive="y" stylebox="border"}
{img type="fileId" fileId="479" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Black Walnut Candle Box by Lewis Kauffman" alt="candle stands and box" responsive="y" stylebox="border"}
{img type="fileId" fileId="480" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Black Walnut storage box by Lewis Kauffman" alt="storage box" responsive="n" stylebox="border"}
{img type="fileId" fileId="481" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Black Walnut turned platter by Lewis Kauffman" alt="turned platter" stylebox="border"}

{img type="fileId" fileId="482" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Table by Lewis Kauffman" alt="table top" responsive="y" stylebox="border"}
{img type="fileId" fileId="483" thumb="box" height="180" desc="Table by Lewis Kauffman" alt="table top" responsive="y" stylebox="border"}



!File References
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History: Black Walnut

Source of version: 49 (current)

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