Walnut Crotch Veneer

Crotch walnut is cut from the fork where the trunk divides into two limbs, where the grain of both branches compresses and folds into the plume — the feathered, flame-like figure also sold as feather or flame walnut. It is the most dramatic thing American black walnut does, and it has been the center panel of fine furniture for three hundred years.

The plume is small. It occupies the middle of the leaf and fades to ordinary walnut at the edges, so the usable figured area is limited by the size of the fork the tree happened to grow — which is why crotch panels are so often framed in straight-grained quartered walnut rather than run edge to edge. The frame is a solution to the material, not a decoration.

Crotch is also full of internal tension and needs a backer; it is supplied paper-backed or two-ply, not raw, in almost every case. Send us the panel dimension before the drawing is fixed and we will tell you what size of plume is realistic. Available paper-backed, two-ply, and pressed to panel.