Re-purposing High End Gunstock Blanks

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It has been getting difficult to find good high grade figured Walnut lately so a friend helped me out. He cuts and prepares wood for high end custom gunsmiths.
The other day he invited me out to his place to see the wood that he sells.
When we went into his wood barn I saw that he had a couple thousand figured Walnut gunstock blanks on the shelves.
Not to mention all the fore arm pieces and what hasn't been cut up yet. I felt like a kid in a candy store.
These are the three pieces I brought home.
The photos show the blanks dry, dusty and unsanded. But....they are really really good pieces.
The top one has areas of burl with bold crinkle curl in between. The other two have very tight curly figure and cool contrasting colors.
The bottom one is Royal Walnut and has very cool orangeish coloring.
I was going to start cutting them up today but a cold front just hit so it was just too cold to work outdoors.
These are 8 years old and have been dried without flaws.
It will be about a month before they are all cut up and back from getting stabilized.
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The photo shows them at their worst but some of this walnut should rival some of the better Koa I have had.
If it wasn't so darned cold outside I would sand a couple pieces just so I could look at them.
 
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Nice stuff Mark! I don't want to brag (too much) but I just scored this one off of eBay. 23" x 9" of black walnut.

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It will be very interesting to see how this stuff turns out. From what I have seen some of the best walnut for knife handles may be stuff that might be considered unsuitable for gunstocks because the figure is too fine and in the wrong place on the board. My understanding is that you want the wood to have some straightness to the grain/figure at the grip/wrist like what you see on the bottom two blanks because that is the most stressed area. The really wild wood that I have seen in person on guns at places like Purdey, Asprey, Evans, the Beretta Gallery, etc had what I guess I would call "big" figure on the buttstock also like those two which might work quite so well on something as small as a knife handle. The trick may be how much "curl" these may have that we can't really see in the pictures. The top one look the most promising in its raw form. Any way we can talk you into NOT stabilizing them? Those slabs are just begging for a classic alkanet root oil/slackum finish. Also please consider setting aside a couple of pairs of long slabs for a matching sheath/saya project.;)
 
awesome! walnut has become my favorite :)
 
Mark I scored several boxes of stock cutoffs from a custom double rifle maker (Butch Searcy, All American Double Rifle). His rifles start in 5 figures and hit 6 pretty quick. Its all beutiful Presentation or Exhibition grade Turk Walnut. Its sure fun to play with. Some amazing stuff!
 
When I was looking through the blanks my friend was pulling pieces with tighter figure for me to look at.
Like JMForge said they like the larger figure best for gunstocks. Ideal for them is crotch feathers and a contrasting color grain pattern that they call marblecake.
I used to think that knife handle wood could get expensive but we aren't even in the same league as the gunstock wood.
Ideal blanks with the right grain orientation and figure often bring prices in the four figures.

I might hold some back and not stabilize them right away for those that want to try a traditional gunstock finish.
 
Ohhh, pretty...it would be even prettier on a gun:). I have been able to get nice walnut gunstock blanks from a local custom builder, and have got some great wood from them
 
I have seen guys asking well into four figures for some of the crazy marble cake stuff with the black mineral lines and like mid four figures for a set for a matched pair of game guns.!!!!!!! :eek: A few years back, the UPGRADE premium to get exhibition grade English walnut on a Dakota 76 was at least $2000 above the price of the regular AA-AAA wood they use which ain't too shabby to start with.
Burl Source said:
When I was looking through the blanks my friend was pulling pieces with tighter figure for me to look at.
Like JMForge said they like the larger figure best for gunstocks. Ideal for them is crotch feathers and a contrasting color grain pattern that they call marblecake.
I used to think that knife handle wood could get expensive but we aren't even in the same league as the gunstock wood.
Ideal blanks with the right grain orientation and figure often bring prices in the four figures.

I might hold some back and not stabilize them right away for those that want to try a traditional gunstock finish.
Click to expand...
 
Burl Source said:
The photo shows them at their worst but some of this walnut should rival some of the better Koa I have had.
If it wasn't so darned cold outside I would sand a couple pieces just so I could look at them.
Click to expand...

Cold? You're five hundred miles due south of me, and I was in my shop-with-no-walls all day! :)
I know....you're used to some pretty nice weather down there. Just giving you a hard time.
 
I agree a guy has to sort through what he has since we work with a smaller canvas so to speak than a gunmaker.

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My pics don't even begin to capture everything going on in the walnut.

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There's been an estimated fifteen .700 H&H s ever built. Butch has built 9 of them. Thats an empty next to the upper knife. The knives are in 9" range to give you an idea of the size of a .700. A box of ammo is $2,000. Rifle weighs about 26lbs. When he told me it was about $150,000 I didn't want to hold it anymore.

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Forgot to mention I had to cowboy up yesterday too. Insulated Carhartt coveralls, insulated boots, Stromy Krommer, silk wildrag and wool fingerless gloves to work on knives yesterday. No palmtrees in this part of Kali, they die.
 
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Forgot to mention I had to cowboy up yesterday too. Insulated Carhartt coveralls, insulated boots, Stromy Krommer, silk wildrag and wool fingerless gloves to work on knives yesterday. No palmtrees in this part of Kali, they die.[/QUOTE]

Ha, me too. Not the stereotypical California sunshine:). Hard to work on knives when you can't feel/ move your fingers:). I want a heated shop...
 
Horsewright said:
Forgot to mention I had to cowboy up yesterday too. Insulated Carhartt coveralls, insulated boots, Stromy Krommer, silk wildrag and wool fingerless gloves to work on knives yesterday. No palmtrees in this part of Kali, they die.
Click to expand...

I recall last winter, I was in the shop and it was 02 degrees F. I am dreading that because I know it is on its way. I was considering dumping antifreeze in my dip bucket next to the grinder, but I don't want my trusty shop dog to get into it. Anyone ever use a heated water horse bucket? I am thinking that would work, or just drop a red hot file in it.

Also, beautiful stuff. I could go on for days about your pics, but I will leave it at that.
 
Thanks. Working on four right now with this walnut, see if I can get any pics.
 
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