Walnut blanks

[cdeily]

I have 6 Stock blanks that are black walnut. Can anyone give me some insight on to value of these? I originally got them hoping to find time to carve them down and create stocks for some of my guns, unfortunately I don't see that happening anytime soon and am considering selling them or trying to trade them for something else to add to my collection.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks guys.

[Bama Man]

Wood is graded by it's color, grain,type (walnut, maple, etc) and "figure". The more figure it has, the more it costs.
It is impossible to grade and price without seeing it.
You may be able to get a ballpark idea by going to dixiegunworks.com. They sell wood blanks for muskets, and stock builders.
A peice of "crotch wood" (from where a tree naturally limbs) or "root wood" (from the base of a tree, where all the pressure creates compressed figure),
is more desireable for gun stock, but is harder to work.
Dixie shows values as such (my catalog is for the year 2008):

walnut full stock (fits 42" barrel, for muskets) Grade-P (very little curl or figure) $ 160.00

walnut half stock (fits sporting rifles, 32" barrels) Grade-P $125.00

I hope this helps.
Good luck

[39flathead]

Like Bama man said above, without any sort of grading or pictures it's impossible to give you an idea.

You can spray the blanks with denatured alcohol to show the grain if you take pics.

The down and dirty way to price is the more figure, the more it's worth. Most any defect will drop the price right down.

Any twisting or warping detracts from the value. How dry are they, as in how long have they been around as blanks? and were the ends coated/painted? If not, they could be subject to splitting.

I will say one thing about walnut, if this was from a tree that was in a yard, not wild in the woods, the texture that stockmakers look for is probably not going to be there to make them big bucks blanks. Trees in a yard grow differently than those in the woods, the branches, which make figure in the wood, grow differently as they normally have more room in a yard or open space.

here are a few places to try to get an idea on what is considered fancy, etc...
http://www.oldtreegunblanks.com/rifl....html?woodid=1
(check out the Fiddleback on the Bastogne Walnut #M161!!!)

This guy has pics on what Fiddleback, Crotchwood, etc... are but no prices.
http://www.gunstockblanks.com/pictures/the-blanks
More pics of grading, but no prices:
http://www.americanwalnut.com/figure...ck_blanks.html

Standard grade at Boyds are $45
http://www.boydsgunstocks.com/RIFLE-...-p/100-111.htm

[cdeily]

Thanks for the info guys. Here is one picture I took today while I was out cleaning up my garage.



Can you buy denatured alcohol in the stores? If so, I'll pick some up so I can take some better shots of the stocks and their grain.

I'm not sure what type of tree these came from (yard or woods). I got them off a buddy of mine who was into woodworking, had to move, and was unloading all of his inventory pieces.

Some, if not all, of the ends are coated or painted. All the stocks are straight. They have been cut down from the usual long trapezoid look to a better figure of a stock, but that's all that's been done.

My buddy always had them in dry storage, and I have had them in dry storage (my garage) for over a year.