Walnuts average in height between 100 to 150 feet with diameters of 4 to 6 feet. Its growing range is from southern Ontario, Canada, to Texas. Walnut can be found with both a straight grain, or a distinctive, highly figured grain. Curly and wavy figures can produce interesting looks in veneers such as walnut butt, crotches, burls, fiddleback, leaf, and straight stripe. The average weight is 40 pounds per cubic foot.

Walnut has been a popular furniture wood around the world because of, among other things, its inherent durability. Since Colonial times it has been transformed into beautiful furniture designs and is found in many heirloom and antique pieces. Walnut is popular for architectural woodworking and decorative panels and is considered to be one of the finest cabinet woods in the United States. It is one of the few woods that improves with age, finishing beautifully and developing a rich patina as the years go by — a fact that has earned it the nickname “the aristocrat of American woods".

Besides being a beautiful cabinetry wood, walnut is an excellent choice for carving and lathe work. It is also a common choice for gunstocks. Walnut is a tough and hard wood, works well with machine and hand tools, has mostly straight grain, and is sometimes coarse. It nails and holds screws well, glues well, finishes well, and can be polished to high sheen.