Cousins are great. They are often our first friends, share the kid’s table during big family events and stand by you when times get tough. I was blessed to have a large number of cousins growing up in our large Italian-American family, and my two sons have a blast whenever they are around their cousins.
Come to think of it, I have a lot of fun around them too. What a good looking group of rascals.
So, when it comes time to throw a few bouquets to the cousin of a famous hardwood, you bet I’m gonna take the opportunity. And, that cousin is Butternut.
Also known as white walnut, Butternut grows primarily in the northeastern quarter of the United States, from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic, from Tennessee and North Carolina up to southern Canada.
The trees don’t grow that large – to about 60 feet tall, with trunks of two to two and a half feet in diameter. They can be found on well-drained sites and stream banks.
The wood closely resembles the grain and texture of walnut, but is considerably lighter. While not white, the wood features tans with a slightly reddish tint. It’s also much softer, with a Janka rating of 490. While that makes the wood more prone to dents, it also makes this wood ideal for carving and shaping, and a dream to work with hand tools.
Like its cousin walnut, butternut also finishes to a gorgeous sheen – and it takes that finish beautifully. That’s what makes butternut furniture positively glow under oils, varnishes, shellac and lacquer.
While butternut is easily accessible and relatively inexpensive in its growth range, many trees are endangered by the butternut canker, a fungal disease that kills the trees off rapidly. The US Fish and Wildlife Service and Canadian authorities are expressing concern about the future of butternut trees, and universities are working on a prevention or cure for the illness to protect these important trees.
So, if you love working with walnut, but want to try something new, why not give butternut a try? You might find it to be a friendly wood to work with.
Tom, Mary May has posted a fine carving of butternut in her “Palmetto Tree On Live Oak” video. Butternut seems to be a fine soft, straight grained wood that is great for carving. This video is a fine example of how to carve with a fishtail chisel. She makes a couple of mistakes which she points out and shows how to correct the mistakes. The carving would fit well in the South Florida decor. i want to check with Bell Products to see if they have some 6/4 or 8/4 butternut in stock. She is an amazing artist. I’ve been studying her technique for a couple of months now. I hope to post some work in her style one of these days. Her website is FREE for the first five videos: MaryMayCarving.com