Walnut Market Prices

Walnut market hot!

Abaico uses Black American walnut as it is a superior furniture and cabinetry wood, but it is also used in our architectural woodwork, interior trim, decorative panels, turning, carving, flooring and veneers over radius cabinetry and paneling.

Flooring is a big market for walnut delivering that rustic look which is a continuing trend here in Chicago as well as around the country. Often the trend favors light-colored woods for a few years and then switches to darker woods, but light or dark, walnut has emerged during the last few months as a highly desirable wood for general custom cabinetry and flooring. Our most beautiful flooring projects use walnut. But either way, walnut is up-front, on all fronts. Demand is up, prices are up and both the domestic market and European export market are up.

Black walnut (Juglans nigra) primarily grows in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. The trees reach heights up to 100' with diameters of 3' to 4'. The sapwood is nearly white while the heartwood is brown to a chocolate brown. Walnut prices were stable in the last eight to 10 years and then it started creeping up about 18 months ago. As demand in the thicker stock (5/4, 6/4, 8/4) increased, prices went up in tandem for those sizes, but in the last two months (4th QTR 2006) prices have gone up across the board for all grades.

The wood is straight-grained, although occasionally wavy and irregular with figured patterns. Abaico picks through walnut stock to find those rare boards with a dramatic figuring…a service which is sometimes required by premium abaico clients. These figured patterns include crotch, stripe, ribbon, mottle, swirls and occasionally burls. The wood is moderately dense but strong in relation to its weight. Black walnut works well with hand and power tools, holds screws satisfactorily, glues without a problem and will last for generations.