Quick answer: There are six types of walnut wood you'll meet in furniture and woodworking — black walnut, English walnut, Claro walnut, Peruvian walnut, Bastogne walnut, and white walnut (butternut). They're all in the Juglans genus but differ in color, hardness, figure, and availability. For solid furniture in North America, one dominates: American black walnut. The others are mostly specialty and slab woods — Claro and Bastogne prized for dramatic figure, Peruvian for its dark color, butternut for being the soft, pale outlier.
"Walnut" is one word doing a lot of work. It covers a chocolate-brown furniture staple, a pale streaky gunstock wood, wildly figured slab timber, and a soft cream-colored cousin that many people don't even recognize as walnut. All are real walnut — genus Juglans — but choosing or identifying a piece means knowing which one you're looking at. Here are the six, from the everyday to the rare.
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
The one nearly all North American walnut furniture is made of. American black walnut is native to the eastern United States, with straight, even grain and a medium-to-dark chocolate-brown heartwood carrying cool purple-gray undertones. It rates 1,010 on the Janka hardness scale — medium-hard, tough enough for daily furniture, forgiving enough to work beautifully. It's the only walnut available as furniture-grade solid lumber at scale, which is why "solid walnut" on a US or Canadian listing means black walnut by default. Everything we build is solid black walnut, and its exact color range — heartwood, sapwood, and how it shifts under oil — is mapped in our walnut color guide.
English Walnut (Juglans regia)
The Old World walnut — also called European, French, or Circassian walnut — and the tree that grows the walnuts you eat. Its wood is lighter than black walnut, a pale-to-medium brown with dramatic darker streaks, prized for centuries in fine European furniture, gunstocks, and veneer. In North America it's scarce as solid lumber. Because black and English walnut are the two most likely to be confused in furniture, we compare them in full — color, hardness, price, availability — in English walnut vs. black walnut wood.
Claro Walnut (Juglans hindsii)
The California native, and the figure king. Claro walnut heartwood ranges from pale brown to dark chocolate with darker streaks and frequent gray, purple, or reddish casts — but its real signature is wild grain: burl, crotch, curl, and marbled figure that make it the walnut of choice for live-edge slabs, guitar and instrument makers, and statement tabletops. It's slightly harder than black walnut at 1,130 Janka. Much Claro comes from orchard-grown trees, often grafted onto English walnut rootstock, which is part of why its figure runs so complex. If you've seen a jaw-dropping wide walnut slab table, it was very likely Claro.
Peruvian Walnut (Juglans neotropica and related)
The dark one. Also sold as nogal or tropical walnut, Peruvian walnut is among the darkest of the walnuts — a deep chocolate to almost purple-brown, more uniform and often darker than black walnut. It's softer and lighter in weight than the North American species, with a straight to slightly irregular grain. It shows up in furniture, veneer, and turned work where a rich, even dark tone is the goal. Because it reads darker and more uniform than black walnut, it's occasionally what's behind a "walnut" piece that looks unusually dark and even.
Bastogne Walnut (Juglans hybrid)
The rare hybrid. Bastogne walnut is a natural cross between Claro (J. hindsii) and English (J. regia) walnut — and it's one of the rarest and most sought-after of all furniture hardwoods. It combines Claro's dramatic figure with denser, harder wood than either parent, and colors that run from golden-amber to deep reddish-brown with bold streaking. It's almost exclusively a high-end slab, gunstock, and instrument wood, sold by the individual piece rather than as standard lumber, and priced accordingly. You won't find it in a catalog; you'll find it at a specialty slab yard.
White Walnut / Butternut (Juglans cinerea)
The pale outlier. Butternut — also called white walnut — is a genuine Juglans species, but its wood breaks the walnut stereotype entirely: light tan to pale brown with a soft, satiny look, and it's notably soft and lightweight, well below the other walnuts in hardness. It carves easily, which makes it popular for turning, carving, and lighter furniture, but it dents readily and isn't built for heavy-use surfaces. If a "walnut" piece is surprisingly pale and light in the hand, butternut is a likely explanation.
Is "Figured Walnut" a Type?
No — and it's worth clearing up, because it's often listed as if it were. "Figured walnut," like burl, crotch, curl, and fiddleback walnut, describes a grain pattern, not a species. Any walnut can produce figured wood where the grain grows in swirls, ripples, or eyes instead of straight lines — though Claro and Bastogne produce it most dramatically. So "figured walnut" tells you how the board looks, not which tree it came from. The same is true of "live edge walnut," which describes a cut (leaving the natural edge on) rather than a variety.
The 6 Types of Walnut Wood, Compared.
| Type | Species | Color | Hardness (Janka) | Best known for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black walnut | J. nigra | Even chocolate brown | 1,010 | Solid furniture (the standard) |
| English walnut | J. regia | Pale brown, dark streaks | 1,220 | Fine furniture, gunstocks, veneer |
| Claro walnut | J. hindsii | Brown with wild figure | 1,130 | Live-edge slabs, instruments |
| Peruvian walnut | J. neotropica | Deep dark chocolate | Softer, lighter | Dark-toned furniture, veneer |
| Bastogne walnut | J. hindsii × regia | Amber to reddish, bold streaks | Hardest of the walnuts | Rare high-end slabs, gunstocks |
| White walnut (butternut) | J. cinerea | Pale tan, satiny | Soft / low | Carving, turning, light pieces |
The practical takeaway: for a solid walnut piece you'll use every day, black walnut is the variety that exists as real furniture lumber, ages well, and carries the color most people mean by "walnut." The rest are worth knowing — so you recognize a Claro slab, understand why a Bastogne board costs a fortune, or aren't surprised when a pale butternut piece turns out to be walnut after all. Our own dining tables and full range are solid American black walnut for exactly the reasons in that first row.
Sources & Further Reading
- The Wood Database — Black Walnut (Juglans nigra): species data and Janka hardness.
- The Wood Database — Claro Walnut (Juglans hindsii): color, figure, and hardness reference.
- The Wood Database — English Walnut (Juglans regia): the Old World walnut profile.
- The Wood Database — Butternut (Juglans cinerea): the white walnut profile.
