Your question implies that French walnut is no longer available, and that isn't the case. It isn't as common as it once was. Many gunmakers used tons of it, especially the French and Belgians. Military rifles for two world wars consumed a lot of it. L.C.Smith guns also were mainly stocked with French walnut. What is referred to as French walnut is the species Juglans Regia, that is grown in France. But the same species is grown many other places and has a number of other common names including English, Circassian, Turkish, Italian, etc. Different soils, climates, and growing growing conditions give the wood different characteristics such as color and mineral streaking. And sometimes you may see California grown walnut referred to as French or English or whatever the seed source was.
Some people refer to Bastogne walnut as French, but it is a hybrid cross of English and Claro walnut, and was first bred in the U.S., not the Bastogne region of France. Walnut trees still grow in France, but like walnut everywhere, demand has outpaced supply, and the prices have risen considerably. No other wood has so many desirable characteristics for gunstocks as Juglans Regia... no matter what we call it. So it will never be as inexpensive as it was decades ago. But as long as there is a demand for walnut, it will continue to be grown and harvested... even the French variety.
As an aside, one of my best buys for gunstock blanks was a lot of French walnut blanks I bought on Ebay about 10 years ago, for the starting bid of $10.00 for four two piece blanks. I mis-typed my search as "Frech walnut", and the seller also used the same misspelling of "Frech" when he listed them. Apparently, no one else saw the listing because of the error, so I got them for the starting bid price of $2.50 each. They were very dense and nicely figured and laid out very well, and he even sent me four extra forend blanks. I believe they were California grown, but they had the light coloring that is common in French walnut.
