I just purchased a piece of walnut from E-bay and am wondering if I screwed up. Dont really care about it needing to dry, Ive got time and live in an arrid place. Its the knotts that kind of concern me.

Would like some informed input please.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3687170021

40 looks and no opinions? Comon guys.. I know the things can be disastorous when working with soft woods, what about walnut? Surley someone has tried it.. btt.

Wstrnhuntr,

You do NOT need the blank to be quarter sawn. Blue again has shown the high degree of "clueless" a person can acheive if they really work on it. A blank can warp and make is useless or at least limit it's use no matter which way it is cut. I have 24 blanks hanging in my shop and two of them have warped while they cured. One is slab saw and warped sideways (and will become a wonderful 2 piece) and the other is quarter sawn and it also warped sideways (parallel to the grain surfaces). What ever way it is cut, it has to cure and stabilize before use. The Brits use a lot of slab sawn wood on their double shotguns, go figure.



The knots will not bother it but may take away from the look. What are you going to use it for, that is more important relative to its use. To be honest with you, I would use it for a pattern. I suspect that you will build a stock that you will end up being proud of and you will wish you use a much better piece of wood.

Thanks Chic,

I wasnt worried about the cut, I think it looks better that way anyway and I know that lots of stocks are done so.

From the pics it appears that the grain is nice and tight even around the knotts, and judging from the measurements Ill probably loose about half of them in the forming process so Im hoping for the best.

Im not sure what Ill put it on yet, Ive got a couple candidates but we'll see about that when its cured.

Again, thanks! Much appreciated.

W/huntr
Looks like you got a lot of color for your money. I'm sure if there were no knots the price would have gone higher. Make a nice replacement for an old pump 22.

On another note, it looks to me like a have a nice piece of grafted english probably grown in California. The forearm has a real red streak that looks like it may be claro rootstock. It's pretty hard to get fresh cut wood from Turkey. I've heard they have some stupid law there that won't allow them to sell raw materials and most of the stock blanks I've seen from Turkey have the edges routed and this classifies them as not raw materials. This could be some dumb ass line of crap someone told me though.

gunmaker

finegunmaker,
Good point about the color. I have often looked at a knockout very one sided blank and said if only it was matching. Of course it would no longer be $300 and way out of my reach. This stock will still look good, thanks for your perspective.