check out this stock

Just for fun!

Question:
It it Bastogne as it looks to me or Black Walnut as claimed by the seller?

Choices:
Bastogne
Black
other

 

While to me it looks like Bastogne I'd take the sellers word on where it came from. Plus he says it is LIGHT never had a Bastogne that fit that category.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
While to me it looks like Bastogne I'd take the sellers word on where it came from. Plus he says it is LIGHT never had a Bastogne that fit that category.

and I've never seen a Black Walnut blank with longitudinal bars!

That's a nice blank for the money regardless of what species it is, surprised it's still available. Will look great when it's shaped and finished.

compare it to this one
http://www.hunterbid.com/cgi-b...ViewItem.asp?ID=6166

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
While to me it looks like Bastogne I'd take the sellers word on where it came from. Plus he says it is LIGHT never had a Bastogne that fit that category.

and I've never seen a Black Walnut blank with longitudinal bars!

I have two black walnut stocks with that "basket weave" pattern in the forestock. First tme I've seen it that heavy throughout a blank but I don't see why it couldn't be so.

quote:

Originally posted by fla3006:
That's a nice blank for the money regardless of what species it is, surprised it's still available. Will look great when it's shaped and finished.

What a salesman!

Let us know what it is when it is delivered.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
Let us know what it is when it is delivered.

Butch Lambert beat me by a minute in a PM....

Congrats to Butch for getting a fine (Bastogne) stock

I think that it is claro. My understanding is that all "black walnut" on the West Coast is technically claro.

It does look like Bastone, but if it is lightweight I would put my money on Claro.

quote:

Congrats to Butch for getting a fine (Bastogne) stock rotflmo

not me - i did not do it - i do not need any more projects

A Name is a Name is A Name depending on who's game and what one's willing to pay too play !. I prefer definitive botanical proof of species . Unless I like the piece then WTH BUY it !. " True Identity " becomes difficult once bark and foliage are removed.


Walnut - The type of wood most commonly used for gunstocks because of its combination of attributes: lightness and resilience to shock, its close grain, ease and predictability of working and its handsome appearance. Several differnt types of walnut are English/French/Circassian (Juglans Regia), American Black (Juglans Nigra), Bastogne and Claro.

Claro Walnut (Juglans regia crossed with Juglans hindsii) and Batogne Walnut is (Juglans regia crossed with Claro Walnut).

Bastogne Walnut, the rarest of all walnut woods, is a natural cross between California English Walnut and California Claro. Bastogne trees grow very large and the wood is always denser than the two parent trees. Since the trees are not cultivated and only grow naturally, they are very rare. Bastogne trees are sterile and can not reproduce. They can not be reproduced in a lab as the only stock available to work with is sterile as well. Natural occurring trees are the only source. The color contrast is that of the brilliant colors of Claro and the dark streaks of English.


Juglans Hindsii

Discovered and named Hinds Walnut by the British botanist Richard B. Hinds in the mid 1800s. Hinds, California Black and Claro are the three names used interchangeably for this West Coast Walnut with Claro being the most commonly used.

The origin of this tree is somewhat of a mystery with some believing it a native tree planted from its original forest home into early Indian village sites in the Northern California valleys, while others suspect it may have originated in Turkey or Greece.

The name "Claro" probably is of Spanish influence coming from early California history when the Catholic padres were building the west coast missions. The word "claro" in Spanish means bright, which can certainly describe the wood. For with its depth of colors from yellows, reds, browns and greens with purple-black streaking, to its radiant feather crotch and fiddleback, it certainly has a brightness and beauty which no other wood can match.

Juglans Regia

Circassian, English, French, Persian, Turkish are some of the many names used to describe this same wood, primarily differentiated for geographical reasons. The origin of the California Walnut we call "French" dates back over 2,000 years and was originally brought to Persia and Italy from the Far East. The conquests of the Roman Empire initiated the spread of the nut and tree to England and eventually throughout Europe. Early English settlers brought the tree to California in the 1800s. However well traveled, this walnut, with its dense strong grain, ease of machinability and exquisitely rich figure is by any name unquestionably the most highly prized of gunstock woods.

Because the trunk and root system of Claro is better adapted to local soil and climate conditions and is less susceptible to disease and insect attacks, it is widely used by the commercial nut plantations as root stalk material on which the desired French/English strains are grafted for nut production. Due to this grafting technique, after many decades of growth, we can actually produce blanks of these two completely different woods—Claro and French—from the same tree.

http://www.talaricohardwoods.com/stash.htm


http://www.hallowellco.com/walnut.htm

http://www.woodnut.com/bastogne.htm

http://www.hearnehardwoods.com...aro_walnut_wood.html

Now everyone can quit guessing as it's nearly impossible to tell in many cases ,once the blanks are cut!. Unless a sample is taken and tested within a Lab for a definitive conclusion , it's a CRAP SHOOT at best !!!. Specific gravities and color help however are not definitive by any stretch. A close , like Microscopic close cross cut inspection becomes necessary for positive ID.An when hybridizing is involved it gets really complicated is some cases and requires highly specialized micron and diffusion technology !!!.

Juglans regia,


Vessels are arranged in various patterns. If all the vessels are the same size and more or less scattered throughout the growth ring, the wood is diffuse porous . If the earlywood vessels are much larger than the latewood vessels, the wood is ring porous (Figure 2.6F). Vessels can also be arranged in a tangential or oblique arrangement, in a radial arrangement, in clusters, or in many combinations of these types . In addition, the individual vessels may occur alone (solitary arrangement) or in pairs or radial multiples of up to five or more vessels in a row. At the end of the vessel element is a hole or perforation plate. If there are no obstructions across the perforation plate, it is called a simple perforation plate . If bars are present, the perforation plate is called a scalariform perforation plate .
Where the vessels elements come in contact with each other tangentially, intervessel or intervascular bordered pits are formed and . These pits range in size from 2–16 μm in height and are arranged on the vessels walls in threes basic ways. The most common arrangement is alternate, in which the pits are more or less staggered . In the opposite arrangement the pits are opposite each other and in the scalariform arrangement the pits are much wider than high (Figure 2.14F). Combinations of these can also be observed in some species. Where vessel elements come in contact with ray cells, often simple or bordered pits called vessel-ray pits are formed. These pits can be the same size and shape and the intervessel pits or much larger.



In hardwoods there is a wide variety of axial parenchyma patterns . The axial parenchyma cells in hardwoods and softwoods is essentially the same size and shape, and they also function in the same manner. The difference comes in the abundance and specific patterns in hardwoods. There are two major types of axial parenchyma in hardwoods. Paratracheal parenchyma is associated with the vessels and apotracheal is not associated with the vessels. Paratracheal parenchyma is further divided into vasicentric (surrounding the vessels, aliform (surrounding the vessel and with wing-like extensions, Figure 2.16C), and confluent (several connecting patches of paratracheal parenchyma sometimes forming a band, Figure 2.16E). Apotracheal parenchyma is also divided into diffuse (scattered), diffuse in aggregate (short bands, Figure 2.16B), and banded whether at the beginning or end of the growth ring or within a growth ring . Each species has a particular pattern of axial parenchyma, which is more or less consistent from specimen to specimen, and these cell patterns are very important in wood identification.
Rays. The rays in hardwoods are much more diverse than those found in softwood. In some species!.