2 Great Finishing Tips for Tropical Walnut

This is a companion video to this blog post on our website, with more discussion and photos of the processes in this video:

Tropical walnut is a nice hardwood that's closely related to the American black walnut that you might be more familiar with. In woodworking, this wood has a rather beautiful dark brown color that's actually more consistent than the color you get in American black walnut. It also has more straight grain rather than the curls, swirls and irregularities in American black walnut. It's not that one is better than the other -- they both have their own characteristics and they're both very enjoyable woods. Alas, this video is about Tropical Walnut, though. So check it out. There's information here about how well it machines and over half of this video is dedicated to several techniques for applying a fantastic clear/natural finish. In short, any basic protective finish looks really nice. But you can make that finish even better by filling the grain first. There are two grain filling techniques demonstrated in this video.

[MrCujo]

This video helped me immensely in finishing some custom Black Walnut woodturnings. Thank you SO much for taking the time to put it out there for us to watch and learn from.
Cheers !!

[robertalford]

Thank you for this video. I love the Tropical Walnut, but I'm concerned with how dark the natural stain makes it. I've tried Watco natural, and Minwax natural. Both seem to really darken my pieces. Do you have a recommendation for a grain poping stain, that won't darken the entire piece? Or is this mission impossible?

[richardraymond]

I'm looking for a food safe American black one finish . But I would like to keep the dark walnut look

[ashrillcaw]

hello, I am using grain fill technique #1 on an American walnut table top and after the first application of sanding and Danish oil the wood appears a little too light for my taste. When and how might I add color during this process?

[MNhockeydude]

alternatively you can wait until the first coat is dry then sand back lightly to avoid the darkening of the filled grain and opacity of the entire finish... i dont want dust mixed in with my dried finish

[davidjanuszewski]

I don't have access to grain filler, what is your opinion on mixing talcum powder to a nitocellulos sealer, and using the putty knife .

[RWRBranigan]

Trying to find the Gel Polyurethane Gel in the UK - is there another term for this product? 

[qigong]

Has anyone tried wet sanding with polyurethane to fill the grain
?

[christopherwalsh]

I'm finishing a walnut desktop. I just finished 2 coats of Danish Oil followed by sanding to fill the pours of the wood. 

I'm just curious as to why you recommend following that process with a Shellac sealer instead of just skipping to the spray lacquer? 

What purpose does the dewaxed Shellac Sealer serve and is it necessary?

Thanks for the great video!