For the sake of simplicity and common understanding, I will refer to Peruvian Walnut from here forward.<\/p>\n
General Characteristics:<\/h2>\n
The heartwood of Peruvian Walnut tends to be darker than temperate walnut species, often a deep chocolate brown color, sometimes with a purplish hue.<\/p>\n
Peruvian Walnut may also contain streaks of lighter-colored wood mixed throughout the heartwood, which can sometimes be extensive and result in a high degree of waste.<\/p>\n
Grain figuring, such as curl, seems to be much less common in Peruvian Walnut than in other walnut species.<\/p>\n
The grain of Peruvian Walnut is usually straight, but it can be irregular.<\/p>\n
Peruvian Walnut has a medium to coarse texture and good natural luster.<\/p>\n
Peruvian Walnut is rated as moderately durable in terms of decay resistance, though it is susceptible to insect attack.<\/p>\n
Working Characteristics:<\/h2>\n
Peruvian Walnut is typically easy to work with provided the grain is straight and regular.<\/p>\n
As is the case with any species, planer tearout can sometimes be a problem when surfacing pieces of Peruvian Walnut with irregular or figured grain.<\/p>\n
Peruvian Walnut glues, stains, and finishes well.<\/p>\n
Peruvian Walnut has a faint, mild odor when being worked that is similar to Black Walnut.<\/p>\n
Pricing and Availability:<\/h2>\n
Peruvian Walnut is more expensive than domestic species of Walnut, though it still tends to be moderately priced for an imported lumber. One should expect prices to be similar to other mid-range South American imports.<\/p>\n
In this blog, I almost always recommend several vendors with whom I have done considerable business and in whom I have great confidence. These vendors are: West Penn Hardwoods<\/a>, Bell Forest Products<\/a>, NC Wood<\/a>, WoodTurningz<\/a>, Amazon Exotic Hardwoods<\/a>, Griffin Exotic Wood<\/a>, Exotic Woods USA<\/a>, Got Wood?<\/a>, and Wood Turning Blanks 4U<\/a>.<\/p>\n Of my favored vendors, only West Penn Hardwoods and Bell Forest Products are offering Peruvian Walnut at this time. West Penn Hardwoods offers only veneers and Bell Forest Products offers only dimensional lumber as well as pen blank spindles.<\/p>\n Woodfinder<\/a> is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising wood dealers. In your search for Peruvian Walnut this can be an invaluable resource provided you use multiple search terms to capture all the possible listings. I can’t speak to the quality of any of the listed dealers, but Woodfinder does have the advantage of allowing searches to be performed based on location which might allow an interested buyer to visit a listed wood dealer in person to hand pick pieces at a comfortable price.<\/p>\n A significant problem with using Woodfinder is that many vendors are listed for woods that, upon further investigation, they do not offer. I don’t know if perhaps once they did and they didn’t update their listings or if some vendors use a standardized list of woods that include most everything conceivable with the idea that once you land on their page you will find something you want to buy even if you didn’t know it beforehand. It happens to me all the time!<\/p>\n Peruvian Walnut is commonly used to make furniture, cabinetry, veneers, flooring, musical instruments, and interior trim.<\/p>\n Peruvian Walnut is not listed in the CITES Appendices, but a number of tropical species in the Juglans<\/em> genus are on the IUCN Red List. The most notable species, Juglans neotropica,<\/em> is listed as endangered due to a population reduction of over 50% in the past three generations, caused by a decline in its natural range, and exploitation.<\/p>\n To the best of my knowledge, the United States government does not place any additional restrictions on Peruvian Walnut.<\/p>\n I realize that inherent in working with wood is the killing of a part of the natural world that may be slow to return and if I become deeply concerned about this fact, I will have to find a new hobby. I hope that such a time does not come to pass or at least not any time soon. In part because I am concerned about legally and responsibly obtained wood, I am reluctant to buy from sellers outside of well-established and known vendors. I am highly unlikely, for example, to purchase any wood from auction sites, such as Ebay, because of uncertain sourcing and documentation, as well as the potential, even likelihood, of material being misidentified in order to achieve a higher selling price.<\/p>\n However, due to the commercial scarcity of some woods, resorting to auction sites such as Ebay or Etsy may be the only way to obtain some desirable domestic, or in some cases exotic imported, species that are not routinely commercially harvested. The potential risks of buying in these marketplaces have to be balanced against the desire to work with a specific species of wood. That is inherently an individual decision.<\/p>\n I also realize that many, if not most, wood workers do not have endangered species lists memorized, therefore I think it worthwhile and important to do even a small amount of research before purchasing any lumber, domestic as well as imported, to be certain of the potential impact you are having, even in a small way, on threatened or endangered populations. This information is easy to come by and takes only minutes to locate through any Internet search engine, including those you can access on your phone as you are standing in the lumber yard or store. Unfortunately, you simply cannot count on a vendor to tell you a product they are selling is endangered.<\/p>\n Besides the standard health risks associated with any type of wood dust, other species in the Juglans genus (such as Black and English Walnut) have been reported as sensitizers, and Peruvian Walnut is likely to generate similar allergic reactions. The most common reactions include simple eye and skin irritation.<\/p>\n It is important to remember that although many people may, or may not, be sensitive to any given wood, the only experience that truly counts is your own, so use reported side effects as guidance but not as a substitute for cautious and safe practices.<\/p>\n Appropriate protective equipment is therefore always recommended when working with this, or any other, wood, exotic or domestic, unless you have worked with the species before and are certain you are not sensitive to it.<\/p>\n Complete information about health hazards<\/a> associated with a wide variety of exotic hardwoods is available from The Wood Database<\/a>. Additional information about how to best use a dust collection system and personal protective equipment, such as respirators, can also be found through this excellent and comprehensive resource.<\/a><\/p>\n Fortunately, I did not experience any adverse effects while working with Peruvian Walnut.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, I only had two pieces of 1″ thick Peruvian Walnut stock to work with so I don’t think I really have a full taste for the wood but what I did experience was quite positive. If I didn’t know that these pieces were Peruvian Walnut, I would easily have mistaken them for American Black Walnut.<\/p>\n The Peruvian Walnut cut fairly clean and required only mild to moderate finish sanding to achieve a very smooth and moderately lustrous finish.<\/p>\n There was a slight smell, again very reminiscent of Black Walnut, that was pleasant.<\/p>\n I chose to use Shellawax as a finish and it worked reasonably well, although I think that Peruvian, as well as Black and Claro Walnut, are too porous for Shellawax and do better with an oil finish such as Watco Danish Oil.<\/a><\/p>\n Peruvian Walnut<\/p><\/div>\n The small plate measures 6″ x 1″ and the larger plate measures 9.5″ x 1″.<\/p>\n I would be happy to work with Peruvian Walnut again if the opportunity presented itself, but given the extreme similarities to Black Walnut I would imagine I would chose to work with the more affordable and readily available American version.<\/p>\n All major cuts were made using the Easy Wood Tool<\/a> system on my Robust American Beauty<\/a> lathe, although I do use Robert Sorby bowl gouges<\/a> for light final passes before sanding. Forward chucking was in a Nova Chuck<\/a>, while reverse chucking was done using a Nova Chuck with Cole Jaws<\/a>. Sanding was with Gold and Green Wave sanding discs as well as Abranet screens<\/a> from Packard Woodworks<\/a>. Final finish is Shellawax.<\/a><\/p>\n As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever your wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If I didn’t know that these pieces were Peruvian Walnut, I would easily have mistaken them for American Black Walnut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":3837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,128,136,137,129,138,139,130],"tags":[168,171,181,188,200,278,269,226,230,239,240,241,244],"yoast_head":"\nCommon Uses:<\/h2>\n
Sustainability:<\/h2>\n
Health Hazards:<\/h2>\n
My Personal Experiences:<\/h2>\n