walnut strains

[smylee grouch]

Are there any special considerations to contend with when making a long rifle with ciserian or bastogne walnut? Some thing like brittleness for example.

[Goo]

Since no one is offering I would guess it varies from tree to tree like maple or American walnut.     My latest Fowler was a real patience tester highly figured maple.  Other maple stocks were a breeze.   You might just have to pay yer $$ an take yer chances.  Maybe ask for or buy a sample ?

[alacran]

 Bastogne walnut is also known as Paradox walnut due to the fact that it is a fast growing hybrid that is also very hard. It is a Hybrid of Claro walnut and English walnut. It is harder than either English or Claro walnut.  I have a blank that was cut down in 1934. It is only long enough to make a short barreled Jaeger. I have a 25 inch Ed Rayl barrel in .61 caliber that I'm going to put in it.

[Ron Scott]

I have sold and used most of the species and hybrids of walnut.  There is a lot of confusion about names as relate to hybrids. Some of the hybrids are harder and stronger than the parent species.  Of the roughly 100 blanks of walnut I have in my inventory, the best machining-carving blanks are the fine textured, small growth ring walnut .  Mine are harvested in Armenia, so are the same genetic line as Turkish or Circassian.

[ron w]

Bastogne can be somewhat brittle. it is usually a complicated grain that does a lot of interweaving and changing directions. it's beautiful, but can be somewhat finicky for complicated shapes.  I have one very fancy stock that never saw anything more than rasps and sandpaper for fear of chipping and tear out with a gouge.  a lot of work !.

[smylee grouch]

Thanks Ron, my main question was just that- will those types of wood chip out when working them. You can get just about any wood to shatter/chip out if worked the wrong way but I have never used those two types of walnut before so was curious. Thanks for the insight.

[Sawfiler]

I can only speak to the black walnut species, as I have not worked the others, but I feel as though I have a unique insight to give. Running our own sawmill as a side business we very rarely saw a log that we did not cut from the tree ourselves; meaning I see beforehand the  tree where and how it grew before it ended up on our mill. I have noticed the largest quality difference in walnut depends on where it is grown.  A creek bottom walnut that was shaded out for most of its first thirty or so years and has had to compete with oaks, hickorys, sycamores and others throughout it lifetime has growth rings that are much closer together and more densely formed that one that was grown in the edge of a field or even in an openly spaced grove. Slow wood is strong wood. I know most people do not have the luxury of seeing where the wood was grown, but it does make a difference in the quality of the wood. This appears to be true for most all wood species, at least the ones I have come across.

[Daryl]

I think a design without intricate carving would best fit with Bastogne Walnut due to the brittle nature and grain structure. It is beautiful stock wood, for mondern guns.

I can "see" it being absolutely exquisite on a short barreled Jaeger.

Some bastogne planks & inexpensive to boot, but short.

https://www.cookwoods.com/collections/walnut-bastogne

[ron w]

agree,...Bastogne is usually pretty enough to not need any embellishment from carvings and sometimes actually too busy to for relief carving show up decently.

[ron w]

 if you're looking for a piece for a gun stock, you're better off buying from someone who deals in stock wood. that way you're sure to get a piece that is cut properly and there's no concerns about being big enough for your design. it's going be expensive, but Bastogne is expensive no matter what it's intended use and at least you will be paying current prices for a properly suitable piece of wood in decently representable grade for the price. what's respectable grain structure for a guitar body, might not be correct for a rifle stock.

[Dphariss]

Are there any special considerations to contend with when making a long rifle with ciserian or bastogne walnut? Some thing like brittleness for example.

"French" walnut, if its any good at all is usually easy to work. I think you should send the Bastogne to me . It should be OK tool. What little I have used was very hard.
I never stain walnut unless there is sap wood.

This was very pale "French" when I oiled it and it looks fine now finished with a shop cooked boiled linseed oil first coat thinned slightly with real turpentine.

[alacran]

I have worked with Bastgne walnut. It is very hard however I did not consider it to be brittle. I tell you what is brittle and super hard. That is Wenge. I built a pistol out of it and will never ever use that wood for gun stocking again. Did turn out beautiful though.




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