Soft pithy walnut

[smallpatch]

Hi gang,
Only the second walnut I've ever worked with. 
As a favor, I'm finishing a gun someone else started.  It's an English styled precarve that is absolutely the splintery-est, softest, piece of $#@* I've ever worked with.
I've installed an ebony nose cap, and am having a bugger of a time to blend.
The stuff just WONT scrape, it rips out with a rasp.  All the things that work with good hard maple, just don't work with this stuff.
Any suggestions from you guys who work with this stuff?

NEVER AGAIN!!!

[Jim Kibler]

We have to be really careful when buying walnut stock wood.  I know exactly what you are talking about when you describe it as soft and pithy.  It’s so different than nice walnut that it seems almost like a different species.  I don’t have any good suggestions other than sharp tools and lots of grain filler at the end.  Good luck.

Jim

[Eric Kettenburg]

I have nothing germane to add other than my own approach:

(1). Burn walnut.

(2). Buy a piece of maple.

[smylee grouch]

Hi Smallpatch: Is that American Black Walnut and not English/European Walnut?   

[smallpatch]

Eric,
My sentiments exactly!

[smallpatch]

Smylee,
No idea.  Like I said, a precarve the owner started, and couldn't finish. Gotta fix a lot of mistakes as well.

[n stephenson]

Smallpatch, I`ve had some of that before too!  What I do is ,go to the section of my  grocery where they sell salad oil . Get a bottle of  pure Walnut oil , about $6 a bottle. I rub it into the wood and let it sit over night. It seems to give the wood more of a wax consistency than the doatey way it is now. I haven't had any problems with it gumming up , myself. I also haven't had any problem with finishing after using it either . I was told about this , probably 20 years ago ,by a well known gunsmith and , have a bottle in my shop that I have used on at least 4 different pieces of soft Walnut over the years.  If you are skeptical , get a bottle and test it on some scrap , it works!    Nate

[ltdann]

Smallpatch, I`ve had some of that before too!  What I do is ,go to the section of my  grocery where they sell salad oil . Get a bottle of  pure Walnut oil , about $6 a bottle. I rub it into the wood and let it sit over night. It seems to give the wood more of a wax consistency than the doatey way it is now. I haven't had any problems with it gumming up , myself. I also haven't had any problem with finishing after using it either . I was told about this , probably 20 years ago ,by a well known gunsmith and , have a bottle in my shop that I have used on at least 4 different pieces of soft Walnut over the years.  If you are skeptical , get a bottle and test it on some scrap , it works!    Nate

Huh!  Now that's a good tip.  My Jaeger was a splintery mess.  It reminded me how much I hated working with walnut.  I'll remember that little tidbit.  Thanks!

[SingleMalt]

I have  Brown Bess musket in walnut I want to start next year.  I'll remember this tip just in case.

[little joe]

Some one here put me onto Min Wax wood hardner and it helps quite a bit.

[Scota4570]

I have some wood like that.  It was a large tree that was grown in a residential area of San Jose CA.  IT grew fast and had tons of water.  The end result was wood that was extremely light, porous and soft.  I can dent it with a thumb nail.  I have used it on low priority projects where strength was not an issue.  A rolling block in 45 ACP for example.  That rifle has a lot of safe dings that harder wood might not.   I would not use soft wood for a project where I would spend a lot of time making an intricate stock, certainly nothing to be checkered or carved.  Good plain dense wood is cheap, I'd cut my losses and get some that is better. 

If you dilute epoxy with acetone you can make a finish that penetrates and adds strength.  I'd probably glass bed such a stock too. Pretend it is Balsa wood and proceed accordingly. 

Quality walnut is a joy to work.  I find Maple to be a pain.  To each his own.  : )

[bob in the woods]

Soft pithy walnut is a real pain, but IMO  , a bad, soft pithy piece of cherry is worse .   Yes, the walnut oil treatment does help on the walnut.  I had a bad piece that I ended up giving a hot bee's wax treatment, which made it much easier to shape.

[Mr. Bubbles]

Would the diluted epoxy route work on spalted maple?  I have some with wonderful spalting in it, but it's alternatively hard and soft.  I don't want to spend the time it would take to make a gun out of it and have it turn out to be structurally unsound.

[Goo]

I make custom jewelry for a living sometimes things go wrong and to save myself from trying to save myself from a bad project I grab a hammer or side cutters chop it or smash it then I start over.    It is always more economical and less stressfully and in the end everyone is much happier.   Burn it and start over.

[smallpatch]

Replacing is NOT an option.  This is a stock the owner started and couldn't finish. 
I'll figure it out.
Constructive advice still welcome.

[B.Habermehl]

I built a pre carve a that a customer supplied with a soft walnut stock years ago. I realize his is next to blasphmey here but I found it necessary to epoxy bed the barrel breech keeping the top of the inlets tight so the epoxy didn't show. I did this because I was not sure about the strength of the wood. I drilled my tang bolt hole a good 1/32 inch over size in case of wood compression at the breech. The same with the rear lock bolt hole. I think I used a 3/16 drill for these clearance holes. For 8-32bolts. I had to do a lot of my shaping with sand paper and wood blocks instead of my usual scrapers. When I was close to finish I gave the stock a couple coats of Formbys tong oil to firm up the surface for finish sanding. It was a real PI@. It did come out looking pretty nice when I was done though. BJH

[smallpatch]

Thanks BJ,
I guess that's where I'm headed. 
I was thinking I'd use a filler to kind of do what you're talking about.

[B.Habermehl]

Just be prepared to cuss me for varnish loaded sand paper. It's unavoidable unless you sand wet with finish as a sanding lube. Either way it's a mess. BJH