Thread: Getting American Walnut to look a bit more red

The person who said that American Walnut will fade in time is right. Given a few years of exposure to UV your walnut veneer will look like the existing cabinets.

That dark grey/brown of freshly cut walnut doesn’t last long. I have some cabinets, tools and boxes made of Am. Walnut and yep, they’re now about the colour of those cabinets.

I don’t think any stain was applied to the original cabinets - it’s just so far from the usual finishing practices it’s really unlikely.

If there is an orange hue it could be from the finish yellowing.

Adding an orange stain to a dark timber, then letting it fade over time, will give you a completely unpredictable result - well that’s not quite right you can safely predict that the result will be awful one way or another.

Also, if the intention is to match the originals, then Danish Oil will be a poor match. The originals were probably done in some type of industrial lacquer, which has different build and surface characteristics.

If you want a close match on hue, you could see if there is some way to accelerate the fading of the walnut, maybe. No experience with that myself, but it’s where I’d start.

I also have some Crown electrostatics from the same era. They were originally the colour of your fresh veneer but now they are the same as your speakers. If you wish to match the finish you will have to reveneer them in the new walnut, oil them and then just wait. The original finish on the JBL Pro series was just oiled walnut or painted grey, but there is no information on the oil used.

Walnut goes honey-coloured pretty quickly, leave it in direct sunlight and it might only take a few months.

This is the instructions on how to refinish their speakers, direct from JBL.

Thanks all for the advice, I'm glad I asked. Ok so no stain, and I'll Oil as per the linseed Oil/turpentine combination as per Bohdan's link. Will do a sample first and share. Thanks.