A very good source of information regarding walnut is a book written by Michael MacIntosh titled "Shotguns and Shooting. "English" walnut is a misnomer as it doesn't come from England at all. Two world wars in Europe has been detrimental to what was once a huge never ending supply. English has a few clear advantages over the others...it has a little spring to it so it will move a little before it will crack. English checkers way better than the rest, black walnut is harder and will crack, but you can get a decent checker on it. Claro, Bastogne, etc., all fuzz up when you checker it. It certainly can be checkered, just not as easy or as perfectly as English.
Edit: sorry guys, I should clarify that the book mentioned above, "Shotguns and Shooting" is out of print, but you can still find it used on ebay or Amazon reasonable. Also, he wrote like four in the series. The first one is the best and has the most info on gun woods.
Last edited by msinc; 01/22/22.
