doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Claro, Black or English Walnut? Why?

Pete,
Could you explain the tea and ammonia a little more? Never heard that one and I am interested in what effect you would get from it.

if i wanted the most fantastic figure for the least money i'd go for claro. if i were restocking a classic American gun i'd go for the best piece of black i could find. if it were some heavy kicking gun and i needed the weight i'd go for black. outside that, English/French is the best. and is far and away the best to work, and finishes up the best.

My point was that all the characteristics can vary widely within each species, including weight, workability, and ability to take checkering. Stating the species only indicates a trend in characteristics. You must check to see that the individual blanks actually meet the desired characteristics.

Tea contains tannic acid which darkens where it penetrates. Fiddle is alternate harder and softer parallel areas. The softer wood takes the tannic acid darkening MUCH more than the harder areas. Use of the tannic acid accentuates the difference in color between the harder and softer areas. It creates a great depth that is quite beautiful.

For walnut, except for very light colored walnut. I mix 50-50 household ammonia with very strong tea (maybe 5 bags per cup). After final sanding, I wipe the wet combination on the wood and let dry. The color is only on the surface so no whiskering is done afterwards. Using steel wool in the finish process takes care of this in any event.

There is a better method for light colored woods. For this you use the strong tea as before, wiping it on alone. Then you fume the wood with COMMERCIAL ammonia which is about 28%. You place the ammonia in an open container like a tuna fish tin. You do this in a wood, plastic, or cardboard enclosed container. You do NOT do this indoors as the very strong ammonia will setcha free and git ya divorced! Use a glass or plastic window to check for desired color. With maple, it might take several hours. This stronger method will turn black walnut absolutely BLACK in short order. The technique results in the best finish I have ever seen on maple.

Sounds like great info I have not encountered before. Thanks to Builder for asking, and thanks to Pete for elaborating.

I read somewhere that black walnut was stronger per pound than english walnut. That actually makes sense to me since I'm sure balsa wood is stronger per pound than either black or english. But, lets face it, gunstocks are made to a size that is pretty much dictated by the previous stock or ergonomics and not usually sized by the guy making a replacement stock.

My own collection of blanks and few stocks that I've made suggests to me that, in general, english walnut is of higher specific weight and possibly stronger for a given cross section than black or claro.

Pete,
Thanks for the explanation. From my point of view it sounds like a great thing to try on my next stock finish. I like to try different things but I am always afraid the color may get in too far and I cannot remove it. I am still afraid to mess around with alcohol stains for that reason but I will get around to it on scrap pretty soon.

Does the tea ammonia combo have a red or green tone to it? Would you use it on a fairly nicely figured stock that seems to have no fiddleback or would you go with a more conventional stain in that case?

An add on question to this topic - what do people think of well figured walnut from Turkey? I get the impression that some folks don't prefer it to walnut with other origins. I got to stop by Chiron, Inc. in Portsmouth, NH last fall and visit with Mr. Murat, who imports wood from Turkey. He had some spectacular wood which he puts on his hunterbid.com website. A tribute to the weak dollar, he said he now exports American wood to European gunmakers!