Timber for Christmas

Double Barrel

A bit of timber for the old gun.

galwaydude18

That's a fine piece of timber. Do youind me asking you what it is?

slowburner

Cripes that's a cracking piece of timber - my guess, Zebrano.

galwaydude18

I defiantly think its not zebrano. Have used zebrano before and it never looked like that

Double Barrel

Walnut.

galwaydude18

What species of walnut is it? I have used plenty of walnut before and have never seen a piece as nice as that!

Double Barrel

Juglans Regia.
The Latin “Juglans” is derived from the Greek for Jove’s (or Jupiter’s) nuts and regia means “royal,” and we end up with Jupiter's Nuts.

It is an article of truth that the greatest of all walnut is French. Actually, it is Persian "English" walnut grown in France, but either way, there is none left, so it is academic. The species “English walnut”, or Juglans regia, is the pinnacle of gunstock woods, with quality differentiated largely by where it grows. There is California English, French English, and so on. The difference is more than flag waving: The best trees for stocks are wild and slow-growing. The slower the better, actually, because it makes the wood denser, heavier, and more complicated, with more exotic grain structure and colour.

Because it is light, stable and strong, walnut makes excellent military gun stocks. Vast numbers of trees were harvested to supply arms makers during a series of continental wars and capped by two world wars, which seriously depleted supplies in Europe. Other woods share those utilitarian qualities to an extent, but none have walnut’s astonishing beauty.
North America has its own species, black walnut (Juglans nigra), which was a hallmark of American gunmakers. It is straight-grained, open-pored, and has attractions of its own when found on an old Browning, Lafever, Parker, Smith or Winchester. Many of their hi-grade guns also carried versions of the Persian thin shell wonder, Juglans Regia .

Double Barrel

The left side.

slowburner

I once saw a blank like that in Holland & Hollands about twenty five years ago years ago. The figuring was not as good as your piece. The asking price was £750 :eek:.

Your blank is very bright - will it darken down much do you think?
I bought a gun by a poxy maker a couple of years ago purely because I liked the figuring. And then I have an excellent gun by a well known London maker which has the dullest figuring I think I've ever seen on a stock.

What oil will you put on the stock when you've cut it?

Double Barrel

Thanks Lads, GD18 & SB.
Yes it is light in colour but it is very dense and hopefully will finish up similar to this old girl. It is from the same quartersawn piece of timber.



I would be more than happy with that. If it is not dark enough I will use a concoction of Alkanat root steeped in artist grade turpentine or linseed oil to enhance the colour. It will impart a reddish colour and the oil is only used to get the desired effect. The oil used for finishing is a version of Purdey's stock finish which I cook up myself.

Happy Holidays

Double Barrel

galwaydude18 wrote: »

What species of walnut is it? I have used plenty of walnut before and have never seen a piece as nice as that!

GD

Most cabinet / furniture grade walnut is flat sawn, and gun & rifle blanks are quartersaqn. High end gun-stock quality wood is what one would see in high end veneers.

Double Barrel

slowburner wrote: »

I once saw a blank like that in Holland & Hollands about twenty five years ago years ago. The figuring was not as good as your piece. The asking price was £750 :eek:.

SB

You could add £1-3000+ to that figure in today's market. I have seen them in advert's for north of £10,000 for a matched pair. :rolleyes:

galwaydude18

Double Barrel wrote: »

galwaydude18 wrote: »

What species of walnut is it? I have used plenty of walnut before and have never seen a piece as nice as that!

GD

Most cabinet / furniture grade walnut is flat sawn, and gun & rifle blanks are quartersaqn. High end gun-stock quality wood is what one would see in high end veneers.

Ah that's why I have never seen a piece of walnut that nice looking before! Will you shape it mostly by hand wit a spoke shave?

Double Barrel

GD,
I will carve it with draw knife, spoke shaves, rasps, riffler's & files.
Exercise is good for the mind, body & soul.

Happy Christmas

galwaydude18

Double Barrel wrote: »

GD,
I will carve it with draw knife, spoke shaves, rasps, riffler's & files.
Exercise is good for the mind, body & soul.

Happy Christmas

Fair play to you!

Happy Christmas :-)

slowburner

Double Barrel wrote: »

GD,
I will carve it with draw knife, spoke shaves, rasps, riffler's & files.
Exercise is good for the mind, body & soul.

Happy Christmas

I, for one, would love to see the stock's progress. Especially interested in seeing the fit to the action.

Happy Christmas and a fit new year.

fergal.b

Very nice, would love it to make my dash
Keep the photos coming I look forward to seeing how it all comes together.:)

Double Barrel

I will keep you posted when I get started lads. For now the blanks are are going to sit in a spare room and get acclimated to their new home.

FirstinLastout

Any progress on this DB?

Double Barrel

The wood is accliminating & seasoning.

But, a I have being working on a different blank:

Double Barrel

Starting at the beginning, the layout:

del88

Beautiful piece of timber....look forward to seeing the progress.

recipio

Nice to see an old thread revived. I've tried to buy Turkish or Circassian walnut off ebay for about a year now but nothing comes up.
There are plenty of sellers of Claro walnut, mainly from Californian walnut trees but its a hassle getting them posted from the US. Either they don't post outside the US or the cost is exorbitent.
Ya can't win.

Double Barrel

galwaydude18

Double Barrel wrote: »

Looking good!

Double Barrel

Double Barrel

galwaydude18

Double Barrel wrote: »

That's going to be extremely nice and that gun looks class!

Double Barrel

Double Barrel

Double Barrel

A final double check of all measurements.
Next step is the band saw.