Why not walnut?

[Mike Davis]

I agree...Plenty of extra work involved, but a few pieces i have seen have just been absolutely outstanding. When it is right...you just know it

[jmforge]

Mike, as you probably know, I love walnut, but it does require a few extra steps in the finishing process to really get it looking its best. In my experience, you can't sand it fine and buff it until it screams like you can do with stabilized woods or oily woods like blackwood or rosewood nor can you just pummel it with boiled linseed oil until it won't slurp up no' mo' like curly maple. I skipped the whole TruOil bit and went straight from boiled linseed oil to an all in one London style stock finishing kit from Brownells that has 4 different bottles of goop in it. That way I don't have to worry about buying filler or polishing aids like rottenstone. All you need is a box of t-shirt material rags from HD. You really need to fill the pores and wet polish between your base coats of oil to get the stuff to pop. With that said, your are still going to get that "soft" looking sheen to the finish.....unless, of course, you go with something really nasty like poly. Lots of rubbing involved, but the good news is that it is only a small knife handle and not a big azz rifle stock. One of those will take you a week or two to do right.

[bcrano]

As a woodworking hobbyist, I think it's a great choice. As for it not polishing, I think those having trouble may just want to change what they're polishing with. Or maybe just want to invest more time in polishing than say ironwood would warrant. But yeah I say go for it it's some of the most beautiful wood you can find.

[RRLOVER]

I gave walnut another shot on my last handle,with the extra steps it turned out a lot better then my first attempt.

[mhenry]

I gave walnut another shot on my last handle,with the extra steps it turned out a lot better then my first attempt.

Lets see it!!!

[RRLOVER]

Lets see it!!!

That's funny:lo

I don't want to get banned!