claro walnut?

[alex e.]

What can anyone tell me about it?Grain structure,finishing ,ect..
Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,Alex

[Mike Brooks]

All claro is not created equal. It is usually a little soft and brittle. I have used some pretty good claro on occasion. I would want to buy claro in person.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

When I worked for Robinson's Firearms Ltd., between '79 - '82, I stocked about 250 rifles, mostly Hawkens, in Claro.  It came from either California, Oregon, or Washington, and was all nice walnut.  For the most part, the grain structure was harder, tightly pored and very colourful, compared to Black Walnut.  It required filling or course, but made up into very pretty rifles.  Bastone is a hybrid walnut and is usually harder and heavier than Claro, but the king is English ---GOOD ENGLISH!!

[Captchee]

  i stocked this SXS with claro


as was said , its not all created equal . But neither is English , black walnut , maple or cherry .
 For the most part I find it works much like English . It is sometimes a little more open poured 

[alex e.]

Thanks guys ,that helps me a bit.

Alex.

[FALout]

Nice looking double

[wmrike]

I'd be very hard pressed to think of a prettier wood than Claro.  I feel that as a general statement it is fair to say that Claro is a bit softer than Black, but like the other posters have indicated, it varies.  I think where Claro gets into trouble is when a piece has good fiddleback.  As used for modern shotgun stocks, for example, where the wood is nowhere especially thin, I would not be afraid of it.  But when I try to imagine thinning down the forearm of a longrifle stocked in Claro, I get the creeps.  It just doesn't have the strength of fiddleback maple.  The fiddleback in Claro and the cross-grain breaks that result from it probably goes a long way to enhancing the wood's reputation as being brittle.

As to finishing, it is much like any other walnut in that there will be some pore-filling that needs to be done.  No big deal.  I like a sand-and-fill using one of the stained Pilkington oils.

[Daryl]

When I bought this stock as a bandsawn blank back in the early 80's, I was told it was California English/Claro hibrid.  It was expensive.

 

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

looks like black walnut to me???

[Mike Brooks]

When I bought this stock as a bandsawn blank back in the early 80's, I was told it was California English/Claro hibrid.  It was expensive.

 

That's what all the Claro looks like that I have used. Don't get me wrong here, I like the stuff, but all the English I have used is far better for gun stocks. I have probably been spoiled by getting to use too many good english blanks....
 Come to think of it, I have a 12 bore barrel set into a blank of claro that has been setting idle in the corner for years....oughta get something done with that!

[Daryl]

The other straight claro I've had on modern gun stocks, lacks the black horizontal lines & was considerably softer than this wood.  Of course, there is much variety in wood.

[Stophel]

"Claro Walnut" is from European walnut trees grown in California.  They are fed and irrigated and have a posh life.  It makes for pretty wood, but, as has been said, it is generally rather soft.  I have seen some more scrupulous wood dealers even say that it should not be used for heavy recoilling rifles.

[keweenaw]

Actually Claro is not European walnut grown in California.  Claro is a native species, Juglans hindsii that has a range restricted to the west coast.  European is Juglans regia and one can instantly tell a piece of that from Claro even tho both are grown in California.  The pore structure on Claro is much closer to black than to european walnut but the color on Claro is much brighter and it tends to be more highly figured than does black.  Bastogne is hybrid between european walnut and black walnut and tends to be denser than either, has a very different grain pattern and can be a bit chippy.  I have a fabulous piece of Bastogne that I got from Cecil Freddi that has exceedingly strong curl throughout and is rock hard but more typically figured Bastogne has a bit of a quilted pattern.

To compare european and claro see http://www.calicohardwoods.com/wood_types.php , look at the grade sample photos for each the European (they call it French but it was all grown in California) and the Claro.

Tom

[Daryl]

TKS for the explanation and the link, Tom.

[Stophel]

This is what I was always told that "Claro Walnut" was:

http://www.woodfinder.com/woods/claro_walnut.php

It seems that currently, "Bastogne" is used to describe a natural hybrid between European Walnut and California walnut.  I believe that the terms "Turkish" or "Circassian" are just marketing, meaning nothing, like "X's" on hats.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Here's some examples of rifles built using Claro walnut. You can see that it varies very much in colour and figure.

[Mike Brooks]

No stain on any of those? All the stuff I have worked with was pretty orange like a couple that you have pictured there. All of mine cam from the same hunk of wood.
 

[Telgan]

Nice link Stophel. According to the info there, Claro has the same specifis gravity as Hard Maple. Who'd have thunk it. Every piece of Claro i've ever handled was way less dense than Hard Maple.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

No stains Mike.  These are all finished with an oil/varnish type finish, that at best, has an amber hue.  If there's one thing about Claro that is appealing, compared to Black American Walnut, it's the colour and figure variations that seem idiosyncratic.

[Mike Brooks]

Well I'll be jigged!

[keweenaw]

Juglans regia grows over a enormous range from England to somewhere east of Turkey in all those 'stan ending countries in central Asia.  Like any other species that grows over a range like that there is lots of regional variation as well as country pride.  A good Brit would never use the term French walnut even if the blank was imported from France, likewise the French were ill inclined to term their wood English walnut.  The growing conditions in England are pretty radically different than those in Turkey and the wood will reflect some of these features.  Circassian and Turkish are generally used to indicate wood grown in Turkey and the surrounding countries.  Wood from any near eastern or asian source will work almost identically to that from California and like wood from California may differ considerably in density, pore size, growth rate, etc.  I've seen wood from Oregon where the growth rings are more than 1/2" apart.  One almost always sees tight growth rings in Turkish or other asian wood due to the considerably drier conditions.  What makes for the highest grades in these woods is typically not feather or curl in the grain pattern but black mineral lines which do not correlate well with growth rate.

In a blank like this the black lines completely mask the grain lines.
http://www.hunterbid.com/cgi-bin/new/auction/APUserImages/U4F1EPECKDCH.JPG  You could buy this piece for your next halfstock for only $2,650.