The glory of good wood
Nothing beats the warmth, lustre and good looks of a well-finished piece of walnut...
There can be no question that walnut ( Juglans regia) is the king of gunstock woods. Whether it is sourced from New Zealand, Turkey, the United States or even more exotic locations such as Syria, Armenia and Azerbaijan, a good piece of walnut always catches the eye.
Contrary to what many people think, and although differences in colour and grain structure occur, Juglans regia is the same species worldwide. According to some sources, Marco Polo brought the first walnuts to Italy in the 13th century and the species spread from there to many regions of Europe, including Britain and France. So-called Turkish walnut is therefore in fact nothing but Juglans regia that was cut in Turkey, just the same as French walnut is Juglans regia harvested in France. What causes walnut from various regions to differ in terms of colouration and structure are external factors such as climate, soil and nutrition. In many areas where walnut trees occur naturally in the Middle East, the trees grow in very rocky and relatively barren earth. The trees are very hardy as well – they flourish in extreme temperatures and get very little moisture in the form of rainfall but survive quite well on annual snow melts.
The sustainability of the global walnut harvest is something that people often ask about. Many of the best walnut trees that are sawed into gunstock blanks today are 300 to 400 years old. Will the worldwide stock of walnut trees thus be depleted in short order? While it is true that old walnut trees in Turkey especially have been largely denuded, there are still a plentiful supply of good walnut from other places such as Morocco, parts of Russia and many of the former Soviet republics and, interestingly, Syria.
A wood importer told me recently that many of the quality gunstock blanks being sold today as Turkish walnut actually originates from Syria. Turkish wood merchants are currently buying huge amounts of excellent quality walnut from Syrian villagers. Walnut trees thus provide a welcome source of income to
ordinary people in that war-torn country. Getting the timber across the border into Turkey is apparently not a problem at all.
THE GRADING SYSTEM
The grading system of walnut is a complex subject that could fill a whole book. Many traders have their own grading system that ranges from the plainest wood resembling below-average knotty pine to exhibition quality, with dozens of grades in between. The Turks have but six grades, grade one to five, and then exhibition grade. The grade one walnut blanks I have seen were for all practical purposes sap wood, almost white in colour with only the barest hint of colour and contrast. Grade three to five blanks can be absolutely stunning if carefully selected and exhibition quality walnut is, as the name suggests, in a league of its own and are usually encountered on guns and rifles by the world’s finest makers. They are priced accordingly as well, and that is no small wonder as only 5% of all the gunstock wood that is harvested will pass as fancy or exhibition grade.
In terms of the trees itself, the wood with the finest figure and contrast is usually encountered towards the base of the tree near the roots. After being sawed into blanks, a complicated process of drying has to be followed to get the moisture content of the blanks down to between 8% and 12% before the blank can be fashioned into a gunstock. As the blanks are prone to cracking during the first few weeks of the drying period, controlling the process is important and many people go to extremes such as building special kilns or even steam-drying the wood. Customers who buy wood very seldom if ever give thought as to what it takes to produce the stock blanks they often take for granted.
To me the process of selecting a blank of walnut for a custom rifle is both fascinating and enjoyable. Every piece of wood is as individual as a human being with its own figure and contrast and you actually never know what the end result would look like. The stockmakers of my acquaintance are very adept at advising clients regarding the suitability of an individual piece of walnut. However, keep a few things in mind regarding layout. Generally speaking, a blank should have straight grain flowing through the area of the grip and magazine cut-out. This is important not only as a defence against cracks and splits (especially with rifles made for hardrecoiling cartridges) but also to prevent the stock from warping at a later stage. Many stocks are routinely strengthened by means of cross-bolts and glass-bedding, which certainly helps, but the easier route is to avoid the pitfalls altogether from the start – so choose your blanks wisely.
Many people prefer embellishments such as fore-end tips and grip caps on custom stocks. Colour and contrast comes into play here yet again. I don’t have anything against ebony or horn as material for a fore-end tip, but I do think that fore-end tips tend to disappear on dark-coloured stocks. Grip caps, especially when made from blued steel, will complement a rifle. I actually regard a grip cap as an essential ingredient of the perfect stock.
TASTES DIFFER
When speaking of figure in general, we all have different tastes in wood. The amount of figure in a blank is determined by the soil conditions in which the individual tree grows, and the spectacular black streaking running through the wood is called “mineral streaking” for good reason. I prefer a dark, honeycoloured background with rich mineral streaking, which unfortunately are also generally only found on expensive blanks – talk about champagne taste on a beer budget. This type of fig- ure, together with a traditional English alkanet root finish, produces an end result that I can stare at for hours on end. I also like blanks with plenty of fiddle back in the figure. Fiddle back is created when a tree is under stress for years on end due to some or other natural phenomenon, causing the trunk to flex ever so slightly on a continuous basis. Fiddle back walnut can be quite striking in appearance and it is sometimes also a good indicator of a blank with good, straight grain flow.
The areas above and (depending on the size and age of the tree), even in the roots are called burl walnut due to the dense, almost intertwined pattern of the wood in these areas. Burl walnut can be absolutely spectacular in appearance and it is frequently an option to upgrade the wood on many modern German semi-custom guns and rifles. Whilst burl »