doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Claro or Black Walnut

I would call it American black walnut --- definitely not claro. Ken

JDW,
If pressed I'd guess that was black walnut.
IME, Stereotype claro with figure is relatively lighter colored and more open grained than black, and has fiddleback and wild grain flows. Stereotype figured black walnut is darker, tighter grained, and has crotch feathering like your gun.

I've seen feathered claro blanks that I thought looked like high grade black. All my experience is based on accepting the seller's description of the wood source. I don't think they have the DNA results for the wood.

JDW,
So if Claro and Black are the same species how can Tony Galazan offer the RBL stocks in either Black American Walnut or Claro (Of course, he also offers English or Turkish).

Read all of the posts, Jake. Claro and Black Walnut are from two entirely different types of trees with different wood grain.

It goes sorta like this:
King Kingdom
Phillip Phylum
Couldn't Class
Order Order
Food Family
Got Genus
Sick Species
Juglans is the genus; the second name is the species (it in lower case).Members of a species may inter- breed (think dogs)and you can get varieties or breeds.Generally, different species cannot inter-breed or at least not successfully (think mules which are a cross of a horse Equus caballus and a donkey which is the domesticated version of Equus asinus)You will note that they are of the same genus, but different species and although they may breed the off-spring are almost always sterile in their mating.Grafting is another case as one species(the stem) may be attached to another root of a different species. Claro and Black are of the same genus (Juglans), but are different species.

I have to agree on what Yeti and William E. Apperson have to say.
Unless you have a botonist around before you fell the tree and tell you what it is, then we have to rely on what the merchant says it is.

what do I have here?
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Really good trees are not felled. They are disassembled.The important grain structure may well be down low. The tree is dug- up.As to sawing,only an expert can pull it off.Then, there is the curing.Then, the comparing of the grain structure to the stock. Way too many buy Exibition wood when that is what it is.For exhibit and not for shooting.My Olympic used Perazzi has very plain wood and is almost 40 years and 500,000 plus shells and no signs of wear.Try that with fancy xxxx exhibition.

An interesting article from this web site.
http://www.clarowalnutgunstocks.com/History.htm

Claro Black Walnut is not native to California. General Bidwell, the founder of the city of Chico, imported seed stock from Greece and Turkey. These trees were planted, mostly for shade, along highways, roads, and city streets, as well as around buildings and farm yards. Over the course of the last 100 years or so, the nuts from these trees have been distributed by creeks and rivers, as well as by animals and man, to as far away as the San Francisco Bay area. As a result Claro Black
Walnut can now be found all over Northern California.


Claro Black Walnut is a shorter tree than its eastern cousin, American Black Walnut, and is much more colorful with its rich variations of browns and reds. Its hardness is nearly the same as American Black Walnut. No two slabs are alike, making each blank truly unique.

Yes and the burl is usually from the area near a branch and also be from where you stated "down below" near the surface or even the roots. A lot of the fiddleback, birdseye, (not too common in walnut)and the various other names given to the re-arranged grain is caused by borers, virsuses, vines wrapping around the tree when young, etc., giving the wood a "fancy' grain.