WOOD FOR THE PROJECT

The folks at Rare Woods South Africa selected a beautiful black walnut board for our build. Thank you to owners Seamus and Brendan Harcourt-Wood for their ongoing sponsorship of all our woodworking projects.

BLACK WALNUT

(JUGLANS NIGRA)

Along with mahogany, maple and cherry, black walnut is a truly versatile cabinetmaking species, and a firm favourite of ours. Prized for its typically deep chocolate colour often highlighted by red or purple streaks and shades, it has an excellent strength-to-weight ratio, and is considered to have outstanding dimensional stability after drying.

It carves and cuts beautifully, allows for crisp joints, is easy to work and takes adhesives and finishes very well. Black walnut has, over hundreds of years, been coveted as one of the classic furnituremaking woods.