I love walnut!!

[Justin Urbantas]

After building a bunch of guns with maple stocks I decided to build a walnut fowler. Wow what a difference!!

  It is so pleasing to work with. Chisels easily, sands easily, finishes beautifully with just oil. I am a big fan of walnut guns now.  I know most English and German guns were walnut, but what American made guns used walnut? Seems like maple is the norm for most American guns.

[Mike Brooks]

Mostly Appalachia rifles, but you'll find them occasionally just about everywhere.

[webradbury]

I love the smell of walnut shavings in the morning!

[deepcreekdale]

Remember though that English and German guns were stocked in English Walnut or Juglans Regia, while American Black Walnut or Juglans Nigra  is a completely different wood, both in appearance and workability. I love working with European or English walnut, it carves beautifully, finishes easily and is nice and hard. Personally, I am not that big a fan of black walnut, while it cuts and sands easily, it can be brittle and liable to split and must be filled and sealed before finishing or it looks atrocious. As Mike said though, it is appropriate wood for Appalachian style guns. If you look through Shumway's RCA, you will occasionally see a rifle stocked in walnut, might check those out as an idea for a build.

[ltdann]

You must have gotten a good piece of wood.  I've always found walnut to be a splintery mess.  Glad you had a good experience.

Dan

[Sawfiler]

Something to consider when talking about the quality of walnut.

https://www.mcilvain.com/walnut-grades-explained/

Due to demand and other factors, good clear walnut with little defects is harder to find and is graded as such. The grades accept lower qualities into high grades than other lumber. Best to inspect your blanks before you buy them. As you all have seen on these threads before, there is a wide variation in strength/brittleness, and porosity from one tree to the next. One of the best indicators will be where the tree grew. Tress grown in the woods will grow much slower and be more dense and less porous than tress that came from someones back yard where they could grow faster.

[Justin Urbantas]

I think this stock must've been American walnut. There were a few checks in the buttplate area that I had to fill, but overall pretty good. It was a little splintery around the buttplate finial, but I got it in no problem.  I think I'd like to try some European walnut for a gun soon.  Can you tell American from European walnut just by looking at the grain?

[deepcreekdale]

Yes, they are easy to tell apart once you see them side by side. English walnut has a tighter grain, and does not have  open pores like black walnut. It still needs some filler to look its best but much easier to work and finish. It also tends to be a lighter shade of brown as well, although, as with all wood, that can vary. The easiest way to tell them apart is by the price! English walnut is considerably more expensive, especially in larger pieces. I have gotten some wonderful blanks from Wayne Dunlap over the years, give him or Daniel a call and see what they have. You will love working it.

[Justin Urbantas]

sure sounds like mine is American walnut. Pretty open pores and grain.

[Jim Kibler]

Black walnut can vary tremendously in quality.  We carefully select all we buy.  This was a lesson we learned early on.  Nice dark dense wood is a pleasure to work.

Jim

[Justin Urbantas]

I would assume that if I were to buy from one of the reputable dealers (Pecatonica, Dunlap, Track etc..) that they would sell wood of a quality that is appropriate for building a gun? I don't get a lot of opportunity to handle blanks in person.

[Mike Brooks]

I would assume that if I were to buy from one of the reputable dealers (Pecatonica, Dunlap, Track etc..) that they would sell wood of a quality that is appropriate for building a gun? I don't get a lot of opportunity to handle blanks in person.

The quality of walnut, both Black and English varies widely. I have worked with excellent and horrible in both. Check with Ron Scott, I have gotten some good stuff from him at a good price, !@*%&@ near white in color, had to stain it but it was full of curl, fairly hard and worked really well.

[Mike Brooks]

Here's one of Ron scott's "military grade" I mentioned above.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

I honestly think I am allergic to Walnut.  I sneeze the whole time I am working with it.  I like the end product tho.

Cory Joe Stewart

[hudson]

Walnut my preferred wood now and about all I work with. There was one peace around fifteen years ago, the wood from $#*!! Nice strait grain quarter sawed, thought I would never get it filled, now that stock still looks fine with close to 6,000 rounds down range.

[Justin Urbantas]

Here's one of Ron scott's "military grade" I mentioned above.

Looks nice Mike. I would almost think it was maple.