Nice table Charlie, Most walnut these days is steamed to get rid of color
variations . Preferences vary all over the place . Having been in the
antique business years ago seems to me the variations of color and grain
characteristics are the very thing that attracts people to fine antiques .
major manufacturers these days want even color in their woods and straight
grained woods so that the planer does not cause tear out , this with all the
sythetic finish coats is why so many pieces are characterless and look like
plastic woodgrained laminate .

As a postscript, over time walnut will lighten naturally particularly if it
is in a well lit environment. regards mjh




"Charlie M. 1958" wrote in message
...
This may be a dumb question but.... Is there a good technique out there
for staining or dying just the sapwood to more closely match the
heartwood in a board? Built a narrow table at MIL's request for
displaying photos of the grandkids and great grandkids. I wanted to use
walnut and cherry. Since walnut is virtually impossible to get locally,
I usually end up looking for reasonable deals on ebay. This particular
lot had some really strange heartwood/sapwood patterns. You can see a
little of it on the table leg in the photo, but there is more not
visible here. It is almost splotch-looking rather than running evenly
with the grain.