Greetings,

Has anyone heard anything about Roger Vardey who deals in stock blanks from Australia?

Thanks.

Roger,
Care to share anything more with us? What types of wood does he deal in? An then the painful question of...How much to ship to the good ol' USA?
Jeff P

One of the best blokes to talk to in Australia about wood and what is available is Ross Waghorn on 61 3 97622438

Ross is a gunsmith but now only does stockwork.

Actually custom rifles, especially those express style 375 type rifles are probably the only area of guns where Australians get a much lower price than Americans for a comparable product.

Mike

Mike, you also have some exceptional smiths and stockmakers down there. Their work seldom gets out of your country but their reputation certanly does. And with that, the name of the guy whose work I remember most vividly escapes me. His one piece of work had engraving done by him and had a Zulu warrior on the grip cap. Great stock work, and metal work and engraving.

Roger
Roger Vardy is well known for his blanks, and supplys alot of gunsmithsin Australia. Give me some time and I'll find out his number for you if you'd like.

Bakes

I know EVERYTHING is shipped to Alaska, and this is absolutely no reflection on Australian walnut, but I would think shipping would be a major cost factor.

I considered buying a butt stock blank (the butt of a 2 piece blank set) from England and just the butt's shipping was going to be around $100.

Of course if you can get a $1000 blank over here for $500 it will obviously be worth it.

Keep us informed.

Gatogordo

I don't know too much about wood so this might not be 100%.

It is my understanding that the walnut grown in Australia is extremely hard which allows for top checkering and at its fanciest it is conservative.

A mate of mine has bought blanks from America before and the costing of freight worked out OK. He is looking at some blank at the moment (Californian English??) at one of the well known and well regarded suppliers over in US. I have forgotten the name. The rifle is to be a flashy 264 Winchester on a done up stainless Rem 700. The gun man recommended the Californian over the Australian given the calibre and rifle style. But if it was a Mauser in 300 or 375 H&H then he says Australian.

The gunsmith I mentioned above, Ross Waghorn, will do on Australian a 500 Jeffey without a second recoil lug on the barrel.

Now in my case I still love the old Weatherby catalogues I must deep down want to be a brothel owner

There is a bloke at the range I go to who has one of those Crown Customs in 300 Weatherby and you need to put on sun glasses whe he gets it out. It sure is an attention getting rifle.

Mike

Roger
Give this bloke a email, his name is Bob Taylor
taygun@bigpond.com.au

He sells Roger Vardys blanks and has sold a number into the US and Canada, he's a great gunsmith as well.

Bakes

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the replies.

My interest in Australian wood is prompted by the beautiful stock photos posted awhile back of a rifle in progress. I wanted to see what was/is available.

I have received offline comments regarding Vardey both good and not-so-good. No futher comments.

Bakes, thanks for the email, I will send him one and see what I can find out.

I visited Roger Vardy after a sambar deer hunt in Victoria some year ago. He had a unreal amount of stock blanks in English walnut grown in Aus. He showed us some blanks that really got us drooling and started to think about what to sell to be able to afford one

He is a absolute top of the line stock maker and we had a look on several M-98 rifles with beatifull stocks and metal work.

We didn�t discuss prices so mutch due to the fact that I allready had my bagage filled with rifles and barrel blanks right up to the weigth limit.

The English walnut Mr. Vardy had in stock was unbelevably dense and strong. I haven�t seen any walut that dense and strong before.

Stefan.