walnut Stain

[Rightarm]

    I was thinking about making my own walnut stain. A friend of my wifes has a walnut tree in her front yard. She rakes up the walnuts after they fall, and throws them away. A few years back, I collected the walnuts in a plastic trash bag, and let them sit in my shed over the winter, (forgot about them to tell you the truth). When I went to throw them away, there was a hole in the bag, and stain was all over the floor of the shed. I was wondering, could I do this, and save the stain in a glass jar? Use it to stain some of my projects? If so. Do I need to add anything to it, like oil, or thinner? Just a thought. Dave

[Russ C]

Good question. I have no idea, but I can't wait to here the replies. 

[julief]

I would guess that it would have to be pressed.  The nuts will provide the oil.  I know almond oil, grapeseed oil, oils used for aromatherapy are pressed and distilled.  Just crushing and straining the oil out will work, but it will go rancid in a fairly short amount of time.  Think about tasting last years walnuts - they taste strong and a little rancid.

[Kepy]

The stain will come from the hull.  After it turns black, it will stain you.  I found as a kid when I tried to get some walnuts to sell.  We lived on a gravel road and I put the walnuts on the road to let the traffic hull them then I would pick up the uncracked nuts.  I also picked up some dark stained hands in the process.

[Rightarm]

    Kepy. I remember my mother running over them to remove the outer hull. She would wait until they turned black. Then she'd get into the car, ran back and forth a couple of times, then let the nuts dry. Great Christmas candy! I really don't think that if I would leave them in the shed all winter that they would turn rancid. But you never know. I'm not going to eat any of my projects. So if they don't smell like S***, I really don't care. I'm going to try it and see how it works out. It's not costing me anything but my time, and a couple of trash bags. Dave

[julief]

Good luck with it - let us know how it works out.

[Rightarm]

    I'll let ya know. dave

[boxmaker]

Hey rightarm check this site out. It may help.

http://mysite.verizon.net/ELLshipmodeler/walnut.htm

                                                   Mark

[Rightarm]

    Thank you Mark. I'll keep that in mind. Dave

[Russ C]

Well I'll be. Thats actually is very simple. Nice find Mark. Unfortunately there are no walnut trees near me.  

[julief]

Great to know.  Thanks for the link.  I think I'll buy mine though.

[Dawie]

Reading Marks link, just made me wonder if you could do the same with chestnuts,as those are readily available here in autumn. On our block we have 5 trees and in the park close by there are a couple of dozen trees. Might just give it a try.
Dave let us know how you get on.
David

[dgman]

Hey David, I don't know about Chestnut. There aren't any left here in the states. They all died off years ago in a blight.

[Marcellarius]

Dave, I wander, did the walnuts freeze during winter so the temperature had effect on the stain developing process?

[Rightarm]

    Marcellarius. I don't really know. I had forgotten that I left them in the shed until the next spring. But where the bag was laying, it has a hole in it, and leaked out all over the wooden plywood floor. However the floor looked pretty nice. Dave