Philly":3s2g5jg7 said:
Simon
Walnut is often steamed to even out the colour of the timber - some of the darker pigments get pushed into the sap as well as evening out the variations in colour.
Philly
The idea that the colours of the heartwood are somehow transported into the sapwood is quite a common misconception Philly.
Many woodworkers believe the steaming spreads the pigments from the heartwood into the sapwood, but the following quote argues against this. “The process does not involve diffusing pigment from heartwood to sapwood.” (Tindall*, 2007, p 32.) He goes on to describe the process using purpose built steamers for the task. The boards are close stacked and loaded into the steamer, the doors closed, and the inside of the steamer flooded with hot wet steam. As long as the wood rises to the temperature of boiling water, the atmosphere is very wet, and these conditions held for a couple of days the sapwood will turn dark and closely match the heartwood. According to Tindall, when the wood leaves the kiln it looks as if it’s covered in soot, but this planes off to reveal a uniform purple colour throughout. Slainte.
*Tindall, B, (2007)
Where Hardwood Lumber Comes From: Production of Hardwood Lumber in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, [online] Available at:
http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/read ... _809.shtml [Accessed, December 7, 2007]
Here is a link directly to Bill's article on the steaming process.
http://www.woodcentral.com/articles/rev ... _894.shtml
Below I have added an authoritative quotation and source to supplement Bill Tindall's research and discussion above:
“The most common use of presteaming treatments is to modify the color of the sapwood of black walnut. Steaming darkens the sapwood, toning down the contrast between it and the rich brown-colored heartwood and facilitating the uniform finishing of the wood. It also improves the color of the heartwood, making it and the sapwood more uniform. There is some extraction of coloring matter from the heartwood during the process. These extractives do not penetrate the sapwood beneath the surface.” (McMillen and Wengert, 1978, p 62)
McMillen, JM and Wengert, EM, (1978)
Drying Eastern Hardwood Lumber, Agriculture Handbook no. 528, Forest Products Laboratory Forest Service, US Department of Agriculture.