Okay, I admit it-

[kings6]

I’m addicted to nice walnut lumber🥴 Last night I made a deal for some French walnut out of Northern California then today I drop off a end grain cutting boat to be flat sanded and ended up with a beautiful marbled block about 10” square and two 8’x13” x 7/8” gorgeous veregated black walnut planks! Shoot we were driving the wife’s Acura and I STILL couldn’t help myself! I’ll have to pick it up later in the truck.

[aciera]

Understand completely……I’m making a set out of the extra on a stock being made for a 12 bore.

Gun stores should have high gun racks so you can see the wood

[woody]

Apr 12, 2024 19:27:40 GMT -5 aciera said:

Understand completely……I’m making a set out of the extra on a stock being made for a 12 bore.

Gun stores should have high gun racks so you can see the wood

What’s the 12 bore your restocking?

[bigbrowndog]

I’ve always felt old Weatherby stocks would make great wood for grips and knife handles

Trapr

[aciera]

Apr 12, 2024 19:29:19 GMT -5 woody said:

Apr 12, 2024 19:27:40 GMT -5 aciera said:

Understand completely……I’m making a set out of the extra on a stock being made for a 12 bore.

Gun stores should have high gun racks so you can see the wood

What’s the 12 bore your restocking?

A Britte action from between the Wars. Buried in 39 and dug up in 99.
“Firearms Find of the Century “ good article in Guns International
It will be stocked for the first time. Took a year and a half to find someone everyone approved of to stock this sidelock.
Everyone being the man I got it and the blank from and the man he suggested to do it but is no longer doing stock work.
It is not a thing easily done well. There will be pictures

[bushog]

I went to Larry Caudill’s house in Albuquerque one time and you couldn’t get in the door for all of the walnut he had stacked up. He was a true expert on the stuff.

He even had over a dozen different types of walnut trees growing in his back yard.

I believe he’s passed on now.

Gripmaker extraordinaire…..

[aciera]

Apr 12, 2024 22:23:20 GMT -5 bushog said:

I went to Larry Caudill’s house in Albuquerque one time and you couldn’t get in the door for all of the walnut he had stacked up. He was a true expert on the stuff.

He even had over a dozen different types of walnut trees growing in his back yard.

I believe he’s passed on now.

Gripmaker extraordinaire…..

I remember the Pachmyar fire in the early 80s(84?)
They were high end gun smiths from the 1920s on. And had their own saw mill. Had been buying walnut from all over the world since the 20s
Had a football sized building…… 80-100,000 stocks. All walnut. All kinds.
Fire changed the business for ever. Broke the Old Man’s heart.
You see one of their rifles now and then. $$$$

There is a guy in Vegas with a LOT of blanks too.

[kings6]

The Las Vegas gentleman is Cecil Fendi and he has thousands of stocks. You ought to really the video a gunsmithing school made at his place. I have 10 pieces of walnut coming from him next week as well. He sent pictures and I selected the pieces I wanted.

I told you I am addicted to walnut!😄

[aciera]

Apr 12, 2024 22:58:56 GMT -5 kings6 said:

The Las Vegas gentleman is Cecil Fendi and he has thousands of stocks. You ought to really the video a gunsmithing school made at his place. I have 10 pieces of walnut coming from him next week as well. He sent pictures and I selected the pieces I wanted.

I told you I am addicted to walnut!😄

Yes!!!!! That’s the guy. Saw that just the other day.
Gerstner in walnut. My first toolbox as a young machinist. Not the oak.
Something about walnut. ………it’s terminal. I’ll die loving it.

[pacecars]

Check out Roger Vardy in Australia. He has some gorgeous blanks and is a great guy to deal with. I sold him a Beretta Mato several years ago and he sent me a beautiful piece of wood after all the hassle it took to have the rifle exported. I’ll never do that again

[kings6]

I’ve ordered nice walnut from Roy, Rob, Zane and Cary in the past and built lots of furniture out of black walnut but there was a disconnect between the two simply because in one case you open a box and there is a beautiful gun or grip frame and you never see the wood in an unworked state like when I buy material for a shop build.

It was not until I began a conversation with Steven Dodd Hughes and ended up buying a set of his grips and his book that I first started thinking about the English, French and Bastogne walnuts as raw materials. When I bought those items from him he sent me two pieces of walnut he was going to use to make new forearms for custom lever gun projects. Since he decided to retire he was kind enough to let me get those two pieces and seeing that type of wood and holding it in hand brought back fleeting memories of a piece I bought many years ago from Steve here on the forum.

Once that happened and I found out about places like Fendi gun stocks, Larose guitars and a few others, I was lost!

[JM]

Apr 12, 2024 22:58:56 GMT -5 kings6 said:

The Las Vegas gentleman is Cecil Fendi and he has thousands of stocks. You ought to really the video a gunsmithing school made at his place. I have 10 pieces of walnut coming from him next week as well. He sent pictures and I selected the pieces I wanted.

I told you I am addicted to walnut!😄

I met Cecil once. He had a Standard Poodle that thought he was a Retriever. Nice guy & a great dog.

[kings6]

The folks that live up the road a mile have a standard poodle that is a hunting fool! No hunting training but a squirrel or bird on the ground is not safe with her around.

[aciera]

Apr 13, 2024 10:23:49 GMT -5 kings6 said:

The folks that live up the road a mile have a standard poodle that is a hunting fool! No hunting training but a squirrel or bird on the ground is not safe with her around.

The clipped poodle look came from hunting standard poodles I believe………

[kings6]

Here is one side of the block I found yesterday when at the hardwood store.