Gloss or satin ,thanks. The best finish for walnut offers so much for the decoration and protection of items created using this wood type. Oil finishes deepen the color of walnut. A better quality brush translates into smoother finish application because a good brush holds more finish. 5. Most of the finishes that you will use for your walnut structures are either stains, polyurethanes, oils, and more. Danish oil is a super common finish … Best advice I can offer is to do some finish and species testing to see which woods behave best under the conditions you expect. A lot of folks get into spoon carving, make some utensils, then fret about what to coat them in before they’re ‘safe’ to use. Danish Oil. After sanding, when I wet it, it has a beautiful color and I'd like to enhance that. Even with the best available finish, I'd be surprised if the color remained unchanged for even a few months. All the best spoon carving woods are completely safe to chew on. However, some sort of finish will help slow down staining. if you then use danish oil it really brings out the colour of the walnut without making it yellowy! Best Finish For Walnut #646193. I have a Walnut shelf that I'd like to finish with an oil then wax and want to bring out that gorgeous brown of the heartwood and contrast it with the outer layer. If you require a more durable and and hard-wearing finish then you could have a look at the Fiddes Hard Wax Oil this is a penetrative oil that dries hard, it is only suited to smooth wood and so if the surface is a little rough or raised the uptake of the oil will double and so be a costly finish and you would be best sticking with the Wax above. Raw walnut oil, like linseed oil and tung oil, possesses a fairly long drying time, so it’s not uncommon for walnut oil to be cut with mineral spirits (boiling) or heated (polymerized) to speed up the time it takes for the oil to cure. I'm building a keepsake box with dovetails and just curious to what the best and simplest way ? ... prior to applying finish wipe the walnut with Behlens lemon yellow solar lux stain. You might find that I'm full of it and walnut/spar behaves well enough for your needs . I sand to 220 and apply Tung Oil liberally, wipe it off after 30 minutes or so. Would some tung oil and then a few coats of wipe on poly be good ? Walnut looks best with either and in-the-wood finish like the oil/varnish or a relatively thin film finish IMO. Best finish for Walnut? What is the best way to finish walnut ? Truth be told, you don’t need to coat them in anything. I would not recommend more than two full strength coats or … That’s a nice look and the oil adds protection, but it does nothing to warm the cool characteristics of the hardwood, especially the look of steamed walnut, which is grayish brown when freshly milled.