I found this article while parusing the web for information on walnut. www.gunshop.com/phiatt.htm . What to you guys think pertaining to the gentlemans references to English walnut not being wood that you could give away 30years ago? Surely it is the wood of choice not only because it is easier to work with than other species of walnut.

English Walnut is the best wood we have in the USA for gunstocks...I call it California Cork wood....but its better than Claro, black and even Bastogne IMHO

Turkish walnut, New Zealand walnut are the best woods today if you can get it...French from France is also a great wood, but a thing of the past...The wood across the pond is head and shoulders above the local grown ditch bank stuff out of california.....California walnut is the same stuff as Turkish, French, New Zealand it is just not grown under the same harsh environment. and that's what counts...

There are two kinds of walnut, thin shell and thick shell, the thin shell is the best stock wood by far....

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

This summer I read a biography on Frank Pachmayr.

In one chapter they told of California English Walnunt orchards going out of business to make way for more profitable crops, rice and kiwi fruit.

Pachmayr learned that some orchards had pulled up their trees and pilled and burned them because they thought there was no market for them. The first year Pachmayr bought 3 entire orchards. The next year he bought 9 orchards. At one point in 1981 he had 700 tons of english walnut stumps waiting to be processed. He already had 12,000 cut blanks stored in 2 warehouses and had to buy a third warehouse to store the rest.

Absolutely staggering for my little pea brain to absorb!

If you want to read a little about stock blanks (and see some nice pictures), go to

www.dressels.com

Regards,

Terry

I agree with everything that Ray said except that eastern black walnut is vastly superior to english. It is more dense and stable. That said you must make sure that the eastern black you get is from a northern midwestern state like Minnesota or Iowa. Western or Oregon black walnuts is Claro and is softer than sh!t and lacks density. It is very easy to work with though and therefore is preferred by many stock makers (it is also quite cheap). English walnut and this includes all the thin shelled varieties lies between the claro and the eastern black with regard to density and hardness. Personally, I use either genuine turkish or eastern black for all me stocks.

Todd E

Todd,
I agree that eastern black is a very hard and good wood, My complaint with it is that it is very heavy...I do think it is a beatifull wood and should be used on period guns such as Winchester levers, Savage 99's Win. 21 shotguns, to maintain the Nostalgia that goes with those wonderfull guns....I have seen some eastern black one piece stocks that would take your breath away and allways wanted a big bore rifle with one of those stocks on it...If I ever find that certain blank, quarter sawed, I will build a big gun....

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com