Walnut
Description
Strong, valuable, hardwood trees of the genus Juglans native to the temperate climates of the northern hemisphere. Walnut trees have fine-grain, uniform wood that polishes to a high gloss. They are used for furniture, painting panels, frames, sculptures, veneer, piano cases, carving, and gun stocks. A drying oil is pressed from the nut kernels and is used in artist paints. Ground nut shells are used as a filler in plastics and as a soft abrasive. A dark brown dye can also be extracted from the nut shells.
-American or black walnut (J. nigra): native to the eastern U.S.
-Butternut or white walnut (J. cinerea): native to the eastern U.S.
-California walnut (J. californica): native to the western U.S.
-English, Circassian, Persian, French walnut (J. regia): native to Eurasia
-Chinese walnut (J. cathayensis): native to Asia
Synonyms and Related Terms
noyer (Fr.); Walnuss (Deut.); noce (It.); nogueira (Port.); nogal (Esp.); Queen Ann's cabinet wood; Butternut or white walnut (J. cinerea); California walnut (Juglans californica); English walnut (Circassian walnut, Persian walnut, French walnut (Juglans regia); Chinese walnut (Juglans cathayensis)
| Density | 40-50 ppcf |
|---|
Additional Images
MFA Acc. #: 1985.36
Walnut
Sources Checked for Data in Record
- G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 856
- Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)
- Hermann Kuhn, Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art and Antiquities, Butterworths, London, 1986
- F. H. Titmuss, Commercial Timbers of the World, The Technical Press Ltd., London, 1965 Comment: 40-50 ppcf
- Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996
- Pam Hatchfield, Pollutants in the Museum Environment, Archetype Press, London, 2002
- Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, Douglas M. Considine (ed.), Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1976
- Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997
- The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998
- CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, Robert Weast (ed.), CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, v. 61, 1980 Comment: density=40-43 ppcf (0.64-0.70 g/cm3)