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Walnut
Norfolk Oak design and manufacture the finest Walnut Worktops in the world. Using only Furniture Grade Walnut Lumber from North America, we have gone to extraordinary lengths to make our American Black Walnut Worktops the best value money can buy.
But be warned, Walnut has many pretenders, most notably 'European Walnut' and 'African Walnut'.
European Walnut is a pale, soft lumber with an indistinct grain and high colour variation. First introduced to Europe from America by monks in 1629, it is grown mostly in southern, warmer climes which is largly responsible for it's pale, washed out colour and weak structure. Walnut needs four distinct, and preferably extreme seasons, without which the grain fails to grow fast in the summer and then shrink back in a harsh winter. Since 80 percent of 'European' walnut is plantation grown in Turkey - it grows fast here - it just does not get what it needs to develop. Whilst Oak trees grow naturally and to prolific extent all across the northern hemisphere, Walnut is indiginous only to North America; nature has a reason for that. On a hardness rating, if Oak were 100, American Black Walnut would be 91 and European Walnut 67. Much cheaper than American Black Walnut as it is simply too poor for furniture, it is cheap for a reason.
African Walnut is a rainforest tree of the oddest kind; it is actually coniferous. Clearly therefore no relation to real walnut, its name is derived merely from the fact that the berries it produces are similar in appearance to walnuts. Having the same environmental credentials as Iroko it is only thanks to grossly unscrupulous marketing that it even appears as a worktop.
It may appear perhaps "the Lady doth protest too much", but in all honestly if you only knew how many clients we have had who bought these worktops expecting them to look like ours only to be severely disappointed, you would be amazed. We all want the best deal; its only natural. But the fact is that getting real quality for a good price is a great deal. Anything cheaper than that is just too good to be true. The latest wheeze seems to be sending out European Walnut samples which have been stained, or to simply to take (i.e. lift from websites on the net) photographs of American Black Walnut and pretend this is what European Walnut will look like. The simple fact is real American Black Walnut lumber IS expensive - for the best of reasons; supply and demand. It really is worth the money.
We have three main suppliers for our walnut lumber; NorthWest Hardwoods from Onalaska, Wisconsin, Mount Hope Sawmills in Ohio, New York State near Niagra falls, and Hartzell Hardwoods from Picqua, Ohio. Walnut is the most expensive hardwood in North America, but with good reason; it's wonderful deep chocolate brown colour and amazing grain structure have been a magnet for wood lovers for centuries.
To make the perfect Walnut worktop, there is only one place to start - with the best lumber. There are three main grades of walnut. Firstly there is FAS - also known as first and seconds generally reserved for fine furniture and very high class decorative mouldings. Secondly, number 1 common, known as #1 com. or 'cabinet', this is mostly used in making kitchen cabinet doors as the size of clear cuttings fits in well with the size of the average kitchen cabinet door. And finally #2 com., or two common, which is the economy grade which is generally used for furniture components. In fact American Black Walnut has a special grading system all of its own because of the nature of the tree and the value.
So we only use FAS grade American Black Walnut lumber.. and we are still the only ones who do.
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