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I have always liked Black Walnut in everything from furniture to cakes and breads. I'm planning on building a L-00 type guitar with BW, as I've heard its not too difficult to work, and looks beautiful (IMO).

Any experience or advice regarding bending the sides, and what it pairs well with for a top? I was planning on Sitka, unless convinced otherwise. Or is a small frame guitar not a good combination with BW in the first place? I've seen Collins C-10 in BW, but heard he had a real task of matching and voicing the tops with them?

I guess my main concern is the bending of the sides. Any suggestions of how much to soak or any peculiarities with the bending iron would be appreciated.

thanks--Dave F

I would consider Black Walnut one of the easier woods to work with, especially if it is straight grained. It bends easily and is easy to sand and carve. I often pair it with Sitka, but it is also nice with Cedar or Engelmann. When bending it on an iron I would usually spray it with some water or bend the side on a slightly damp rag placed on the iron (my most common iron bending practice). I have never soaked sides and don't think it is necessary for a wood that bends as easily as BW. I've not built an L-00 size walnut, but now you have me thinking....

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Yep, black walnut is about as easy as it gets for bending. It even has reasonably dark color to hide scorch marks if you mess up Any bending challenges will be specific to the set... is it flatsawn? Curly? Knots? Other grain irregularities?

It's a great neck wood too, though a bit on the heavy side, especially for something small like an L-00.

I'll vote redwood for the top.

Walnut is awesome and can make a great guitar, big or small. Tonally between mahogany and rosewood. I love it. Pairs well with everything. Sitka is my least favorite top wood. I'm all over lutz these dYs...

Or perhaps I should say all about lutz. By which I mean it's my favorite.

My daily player for the last 4 years is a black walnut/sitka OM with walnut neck. Needless to say I like the combination even though I also like the Lutz a lot. The next black walnut I do will probably have a red spruce top.

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I love walnut. It is easy to work, smells great, and sounds great. I have paired it with lutz, englemann, and black walnut. I like all of these combos.

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Black Walnut is a great wood-easy to bend and carve and relatively inexpensive.

My favorite guitar is a walnut/Adi ladder braced (26.5 scale tuned down a whole step).

It also has a walnut neck:

Thanks all. Sounds like there's no difficulty with walnut working. This beginner is happy to hear that. Will definitely consider the redwood top suggestions. Brad, thanks for the beautiful pictures. Would love to hear how that sounds!

I built a 13-fret Nick Lucas/Santa Cruz type with Black Walnut & Lutz.

My experience is very limited but it's my favorite so far.

The sides bent without incident.

Kevin Looker

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Beautiful, Kevin. That's very similar to what I'm thinking about. Even the binding, but depending on how lucky I feel, may try for walnut instead??

Its one of my favorites! I've done a black walnut top guitar too. Sounded great.

Black Walnut is a great wood to work with in making instruments. It bends easily and carves easily enough to make a neck. Just finished an OM with BW on the B&S and neck paired with Sitka spruce for the top.
One of my favorite builds!

Don't soak it. Just a light spritz of water from a plant mister will do the trick. Don't lean on it too hard--use gentle, firm pressure and a rocking motion on your pipe. You won't believe how fast it starts to bend. I've paired it with sitka, western red cedar and redwood. All look good and sound good. The redwood I've had was fairly difficult to work. It's brittle. The tops I've used have shown extreme differences between the late wood (which is hard as glass) and the early wood (which is extremely soft). It is a beautiful visual pairing with walnut and sounds very nice. But I preferred working with cedar and sitka. I imagine any of the other spruces would be just fine.

By the way, I'm glad to see our friend, Nils, has built a walnut-topped guitar. I've always thought about doing that.

One final note: Walnut can sometimes look a bit gray while unfinished. It's easy to "warm up" the color by staining during the pore filling process, or by shooting a seal coat of amber shellac--or both. Keep some scraps around and experiment on them.

Walnut is one of my favorites. It looks nice, sort of like Indian rosewood but with browner tints, it has good tonal properties and stability, it's easy to finish, it's plentiful around here and I can source it locally mostly for free or close to free. Sometimes you can find figured black walnut...I have a set I am saving for a special build.

Like others say it bends easily but in my experience (3 instruments with walnut so far) it springs back even a few days after it's bent so keep it in the form. And if you are building free form expect to touch it up on the hot pipe before you close up the box.

The only downside, for me at least, is the allergies. Black walnut makes me break out if I handle it too much or breathe in the dust. I am ok with Claro walnut, which is weird.

Nice guitars fellas!

Thanks for the bending and finishing tips. Nice to know I'm not alone in my love of black walnut! Now I really cant wait to start one!

One other little point: It will tend to stain your fingertips a bit as you handle it during a long afternoon. Don't be put off by that. It'll wash off after about the third go with the soap and water.

Yeah--have you ever shucked walnuts out of monkey balls? (no obscenity here--that's what we called the green husks that BWs grow in) It puts a dark stain on your hands that will only wear off after several days. Or longer.

Yes I know about the stain. Growing up in the Central Valley of California during the fifties. There were huge black walnut trees lining the old country roads. You could take a 100 lb Toe Sack( burlap) full of black walnuts it would bring $1. But you could buy close to five gallons of gas for that buck. A whole weekend of cruisin.


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I love black walnut. Another combo that some like is Black Walnut with a Western Red Cedar top. The only downside being how easily dinged cedar is. One thing about Black walnut. Don't put the sawdust in your compost. it's toxic to many types of plants.

Walnut shavings and sawdust are deadly to horses, as well.

Alex

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