....or how I just spent my kid’s College fund


I recently returned home to Australia and found myself driving between Sydney and Melbourne. It just so happens that Roger Vardy, a well-known walnut dealer lives not too far off the main highway. I arranged to stop by for a “quick†visit. 5 hours later I was continuing down the highway – with a much lighter wallet.

Unfortunately I really didn’t have time to set-up good photos. We were pulling blanks off the shelves at quite some rate. I have to say, having the run of such a place was quite an experience.

Here are a couple of quick snaps I took. Hope you enjoy them


















Roger is in the process of putting together a website. There’s not much content on it yet but the address is http://www.rogervardystockblanks.com/

Cool library.

5 hours in walnut heaven... That would be a dream for me... Lighter wallet well spent. I understand Aussie wood is some of the best.

most of rogers wood is 20-25 years old
daniel

I WANT!!!.....................DJ

I bought four stocks. The youngest was 13 years old, the oldest 23 years. Unfortunately they went straight to the stockmaker and I didn’t take good photos. SR 224 in the second from bottom picture is one. SR 258 & SR 260 in the third from bottom picture are two others.

- stu

Beautiful. It must be a pleasure to visit such a place, and see all those blanks.....

Back in 2001 I also had a "grand tour" of Rogers unreal supply of walnut!

That man have a serious amount of upper end walnut blanks

Me and a friend had spent a few days hunting for Sambar in the area and after a night in swags we riced early and whent by Roger to check his buissnies out. Roger offered us breakfast that we enjoyed just outside his kitchen. We had a look in the kitchen to and that is the most exclusive kitchen I have seen so far! XXX walnut panels and cabinets all over

Mr. Vardy is a exeptional good stockmaker to! He showed us some great rifles with beatifull stocks he had made!

Stefan

I have no idea what the market for walnut is in US but for most people the wood in US will probably do just fine.

Mr. Vardys blanks is extremly hard and dense! The climate in Aus. seemes to be suitable for growing walnut-trees for gunstocks!

Stefan

quote:

Originally posted by 333_OKH:
The wood appears very nice , but what is its benefit to woods in the US? I mean what will make it better to justify shipping from Australia?

Dont listen too much to the opinion of an average Joe like me,

I suggest you ring Jerry Fisher and ask him.

Holland&Holland seems to think its Justified also, so does Mike Roden from GraniteMountainArms.
Remember, these guys arnt shy of building bigbores, so that tells us something before we even ask.

I have had a number of Recon missions in the VardyWalnutVault with a few extractions, some of it makes you and for joy all at the same time. Its like being at a national conference for super models, except in the case of walnut, the denser the better and you do get more variety of figure.

StuC,
I am glad to see that you have not picked out any of the ones I have my eye on. I have some account credit down there I need to spend, your post is very refreshing and motivating.
How you spent your sons education money will be an education in itself for your Son.

Heaven can wait, hell aint so bad so far.

quote:

Originally posted by 333_OKH:
The wood appears very nice , but what is its benefit to woods in the US? I mean what will make it better to justify shipping from Australia?

I didn't post this topic as an advertisement. Just thought it might interest a couple of folks.

I've bought wood in the US that I am more than happy with. There's certainly no need to look abroad if you don't want to. But as has been mentioned here already, the wood in Roger's storerooms is old and seasoned, the blanks are cut full-sized and he has blanks that are as hard and dense as any you'd want to use.

Hope this answers your question.

- stu

quote:

Originally posted by Woodjack:

StuC,
I am glad to see that you have not picked out any of the ones I have my eye on. I have some account credit down there I need to spend, your post is very refreshing and motivating.

It would have been some feat if out of the thousands of blanks stacked there, I'd managed to pick the same ones as you. But then again, there are two others with my name on them now which aren't in any of these photos

- stu

StuC
I hope you had a bib on when you were there cause that is enough quality Walnut to make even the most hardened man drool. Were the blanks pictured average quality of what he has? Wonder if he wants to adopt a grown son? HHHMMMM

Steve E.......

Just asking.

I think some of the wood posted is fabulous. I actually like some of the wood that is mostly fiddleback with only a little contrast.

WOW!!!

Anyone near there coming to Colorado within the next six months??

Sure would be nice to compare price's on some of these you bought.
Thank you for posting these pictures.

George

quote:

Originally posted by Steve E.:
... Were the blanks pictured average quality of what he has? .....

Steve,
I was looking for a certain style of blank, so the ones I photographed are more or less ones that fit my taste. We were pulling blanks off the shelves looking for that certain style. Many, many good blanks never made it to the floor.

Have a look at the photos of wood ForrestB posted in the Scholarship Rifle thread. A few of Roger’s higher quality blanks are pictured there.

- stu

Sent Vardy a note asking about some prices on these shown. Only one he quoted was SR51, scary!

$800us, plus $80us shipping. That's $900 bucks just for the blank. This one don't look anywhere near worth that much to me.

Hell of a lot prettier blanks around the states for less than half that, much less than half.

George

quote:

Originally posted by georgeld:
Sent Vardy a note asking about some prices on these shown. Only one he quoted was SR51, scary!

$800us, plus $80us shipping. That's $900 bucks just for the blank. This one don't look anywhere near worth that much to me.

Hell of a lot prettier blanks around the states for less than half that, much less than half.

George

George,

The only one we quoted on was the only one you asked for!!!!

We have an email from you on 22nd May only asking for a price on SR125 and SR51.

We did not know where you had seen SR125 as it had been sold in May 2005.

WE gave you the price of SR51 plus shipping.

As far as your comment about quality, all our blanks have a minimum of ten years drying time and our layout is perfect.

What this means is that your stockmaker isn't going to have any headaches with wood shrinkage and layout is the first characteristic of a blank that a stockmaker will look at.

Unfortunately one cannot judge the complete attributes of a blank until you can hold it in your hand and see the physical structure of the blank.

Most of our blanks will checker, on the end grain (skeleton butt plates and grip caps), as fine a checkering as can be done.

If you are serious about buying a blank, give us your price range, and what calibre of rifle you are building (either lightweight or a big bore rifle) and we will supply photographs of the blanks in your price range.

Our Rifle blanks range from XXX V Grade at $220 USD each, XXX N Grade at $290 USD each, XXX Q Grade at $360 USD each. Our Exhibition Grade starts at $400 USD each.

Roger Vardy

quote:

Originally posted by georgeld:
Sent Vardy a note asking about some prices on these shown. Only one he quoted was SR51, scary!

$800us, plus $80us shipping. That's $900 bucks just for the blank. This one don't look anywhere near worth that much to me.

Hell of a lot prettier blanks around the states for less than half that, much less than half.

George

SR51 looks like an $800 to me. Wood is subjective, but I still strongly disagree with you last stament.

Terry

Saw something similar in S. Turkey back in 91. Unfortunately time /place/camera restraints mean no pictures but OH MY DEAR GOD!!! What I would have given for a deuce and a half, an unloaded C-130 and a few hours!!

Aloha, Mark

As much as I hate to flat out disagree with anyone SR51 doesnt look like $800. I bought a blank at the ACGG show for half that price that has A LOT better color and figure.

Gerogeld,
you say there are much prettier blanks around for much less than half that price,

Bill Sovern,
you say you got something much better color&figure for the same price,

can you post some photos with full details(price age, miosture%), so we can see for ourselves?

Ive seen much prettier sticks too,but shear appearances are not everything one would wisely consider.
That is, unless, someone was Building a rifle Like a U.S. election campaign.

Someone here asked about what the finished product might look like...here is a photo of two Pete Grisel rifles stocked with Australian walnut from Vardy. Beautiful work with beautiful wood, if you asked me.

That was me, but I hit the delete instead of post when I edited to be more clear in my post. My mistake, which is hard to do since it askes if your sure.

The two rifles are amazing. My wife thinks the marbled buttstock areas are down right ugly, but she got a kick out of the feathered crotch wood in the butt of the rifle on another picture I showed her. She is seriously concerned about our terminology!

This wood came from Roger. The rifle belongs to a mate of mine.





and this is the original blank this rifle was made from



-stu

The Vardy Blanks look to be better priced than what Dressels lists on their web page, and by a long shot.