Oak and walnut are the two species most people end up choosing between, and they differ in four ways that last: hardness, tone, grain, and price. White oak is Janka 1360, pale with a strong open grain, and ambers slowly with age. Black walnut is Janka 1010, chocolate brown with a closer grain, and lightens over the first decade rather than darkening. Oak takes knocks better. Walnut generally costs more, and asks less of a room visually.
Rootelier uses “Oak” and “Walnut” as finish labels. These labels do not identify the wood species used in a product.
The rest of this page covers what those numbers mean in use, the eight other species worth knowing, and the thing that matters more than any of them.
Oak vs walnut, head to head
| White oak | Black walnut | |
|---|---|---|
| Janka hardness | 1360 | 1010 |
| Tone when new | Pale beige-brown, slight greenish cast | Chocolate to purple-brown |
| How it changes | Ambers to golden over years | Lightens to warm honey-brown over a decade |
| Grain | Strong, open, visible across a room | Straight to wavy, closer, quieter |
| Cost | Moderate | High, above oak |
| Water resistance | Good, closed cell structure | Average |
| Suits | Surfaces used hard: dining tables, work surfaces | Pieces where appearance leads: desks, consoles, sideboards |
The counterintuitive part is the price and hardness running in opposite directions. Walnut is the more expensive wood and the softer one. On a dining table used daily by children, that difference shows up as dents within a year or two. People routinely assume the costlier timber is the tougher one, and here it is not.
What Janka actually measures
The Janka rating is the force needed to embed an 11.28 mm steel ball halfway into the wood. It is a dent test, and nothing else. It does not measure scratch resistance, which is mostly a property of the finish rather than the timber, and it does not measure how long a piece will last.
Janka figures on this page are side hardness in pounds-force (lbf) at 12% moisture content, from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook table of strength properties for commercially important United States species. The test measures the load needed to embed a 11.28 mm (0.444 in.) ball to half its diameter. A figure belongs to the species named in that row, not to every timber sold under the same common name.
Treat it as a comparison between species, not as a score. The gap between oak at 1360 and walnut at 1010 is real and you will notice it. The gap between white oak at 1360 and ash at 1320 is not something you will ever detect in a room.
Grain, and what it does to a room
Grain decides more of the final look than color does. Oak's grain is open and strongly figured, with prominent ray flecks when quartersawn. It reads as pattern from across a room, and in a small piece it dominates. Walnut's grain is closer and calmer, so a walnut sideboard sits quietly in a busy room where an oak one would compete with it.
A quiet grain is not the same thing as a forgiving surface. A dent in walnut shows as crushed pale fiber against a dark background, which is not subtle. If you want small marks to go unnoticed, you want a busy grain and a mid tone, which points back toward oak.
How each ages
Both change, in opposite directions. Oak ambers and deepens. Walnut darkens briefly, then lightens for years before settling. Almost every other wood is described as darkening with age, so walnut surprises people who expected the piece to stay as dark as the photograph.
Photographs on any site, including this one, show a piece when it is new. The species-by-species detail on what to expect over ten years is in How Hardwood Furniture Ages.
Which to choose for which piece
- Dining table, family use: white oak or ash. Hardness matters here more than anywhere.
- Desk or console: walnut, if the budget allows. These take less abuse and appearance leads.
- Kitchen work surface: white oak. Its closed cell structure resists water in a way red oak does not.
- A small piece in a busy room: walnut or maple. Oak's grain will fight the room.
- A piece you intend to keep for decades: cherry, then walnut. Both reward waiting.
- Household with young children: oak, maple or acacia. Not walnut, not cherry.
The other eight species, briefly
Northern red oak, Janka 1290. Cheaper and more common than white oak, with a pink undertone that strengthens with age and an open, porous grain that liquid can travel along. Poor for work surfaces. The pink is what dates rooms furnished in the 1990s.
Hard maple, Janka 1450. The hardest common furniture timber and the most neutral, near-white and yellowing slowly. Notoriously blotchy under stain, so it is best left natural. The pale surface shows every mark.
Cherry, Janka 950. Pale pinkish tan when new, deepening to a rich red-brown. The most dramatic change of any common species. Soft, so it dents. A new cherry table is underwhelming and a ten-year-old one is not.
Ash, Janka 1320. Oak's hardness and grain pattern, paler and creamier, usually cheaper. Exceptionally good at absorbing shock, which is why tool handles are ash. Underrated.
Acacia. Hardness varies widely between the species sold under this name, so a single Janka figure would mislead. Dense, with strong contrast between pale sapwood and dark heartwood. Well priced for its performance. The contrast is busy, and it reduces over years as the pale areas darken faster than the dark ones.
Teak, Janka side hardness 1,000 to 1,155 lbf for dry material. Naturally oily and rot-resistant, the standard for outdoor use, graying to silver if left unfinished. Expensive, and sourcing matters. Ask where it came from.
Pine, fir and the softwoods, Janka 380 lbf for eastern white pine up to 870 lbf for longleaf pine. Cheap, light and soft enough to mark from ordinary use. A pine tabletop will be dented within a year. It suits rustic and painted pieces where marks read as character. Cedar belongs here: aromatic, useful for chests and closet linings, much too soft for surfaces.
Poplar, Janka 540. Cheap, technically a hardwood, often greenish, and genuinely useful as a paint substrate or for hidden structural parts. A poor choice for anything that shows. If a listing says solid hardwood and the answer to which one is poplar, adjust your expectations of the price.
What matters more than species
Construction beats species. A well-built oak table with sound joints, properly dried timber and a repairable finish will outlast a badly built walnut one by decades. Species decides how a piece looks and how it dents. Construction decides whether it is still in use in thirty years.
Ask how the timber was dried, how the piece is joined, and what the finish is, before asking what tree it came from. That reasoning is worked through in Is Solid Wood Furniture Worth the Money? and Solid Wood, Plywood or MDF. For keeping any of them looking right, see how to clean wood furniture. Walnut's place in a particular era is covered in Mid-Century Modern Furniture.
Common questions
Is oak or walnut harder?
Oak. White oak rates Janka 1360 against black walnut at 1010, a difference of about a third. Oak resists denting noticeably better, which matters most on dining tables and work surfaces.
Does walnut get darker or lighter over time?
Lighter. Walnut darkens briefly and then lightens toward a warm honey-brown over about a decade. It is the exception among common furniture woods, most of which darken, and it surprises people who chose it for the deep color in a photograph.
Which is more expensive, oak or walnut?
Walnut, generally by a clear margin for the same piece. It is also the softer of the two, so the higher price buys appearance rather than durability.
Which wood is best for a dining table?
White oak for most households. It is hard at Janka 1360, its closed cell structure handles spills better than red oak, and its grain hides small marks. Ash is the cheaper alternative with similar hardness and a lighter tone.