Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Seeking Input on French Walnut/ Grade

All of this is precisely why I said this is extremely subjective. Is Winchester stretching the boundaries a bit by calling something that has zero curl...AAA? Yep. I think they are, and its probably because the word 'French' is in the name of the wood. The reason that it is subjective is that the question will fail to meet a truth condition of multiple observers. (snicker)...and that even applies to the claim that it's 'French Walnut', cuz some of the those observers are bound to tell you its 'European' walnut.

Man I don't know what recourse you have, but my own view is this; that's not AAA grade wood. There's a complete absence of curl, which means the leading optical appeal / quality...is mineralized annular rings.

Good post..

Your're very much adept with wood, and I value your opinion. Surely, you are on the mark with your assessment on the Prussian/Daly: on the money. In this respect, I have two questions for you: 1.) Would you keep the rifle and 2.) is the mark on the butt stock "Sputtering" and would that be a concern, should I sell in the future? Thank you very much for the professional courtesy.

You are 100 percent correct and I do concur with you. However, I've already purchased.

Yes, there is no question as to the grade among those here. Your consensus is considered fact by me. Well, the multiple observers here seem to classify the wood as AA. Winchester has always served me in the past in helping. I'll see what they have to say. Remember this is business 101. Thanks very much for the assistance.

Please share with us their response.

There's not much consistency, that's for sure. This is from an old Calico Hardwoods brochure. Calico used to supply Weatherby's wood:

French Walnut

A Fancy Grade - Up to 50% figure or contrasting color in the butt. Figure is generally fiddleback.
AA Fancy Grade - Up to 75% figure or contrasting color.
AAA Fancy - Up to 100% figure or contrasting color.

Fajen's wood grading system was similar.

Winchester is probably being a bit generous in their grading. OTOH, maybe that's what passes for AAA wood these days.

My experience over the years has been that each species of wood was graded within - in other words, American Walnut could not be compared to Claro or English and so on. Grade AAA blank of English is not going to have the same figure that a AAA Claro has, nor that of a AAA American Walnut. There was not one standard used across all wood type but rather a standard within each type. If you go back and look at any of the old stock sellers ads, where they would have representative samples of wood grades, you'll see what I'm speaking of. Sadly, very few photos do justice to English which is prized as much for its color contrast in longitudinal lines/layers as it is for wood figure such as burl and fiddleback. It's difficult to capture this photographically. Also, you'll find that the same grade - such as AAA - will not be priced anywhere near the same across all wood types. Add to that a stocksmith is going to look beyond the actual appearance of the blank and project what the final product will look like - I always liked having a plexiglass stock template profile to shift around each side of the blank, to see if the stock I had in mind would actually capture the most appealing qualities of the blank. I second what someone already said; wood grading IS subjective - very much so - and like opinions & buttholes will vary greatly from person to person.

Grade A…… nice wood.

"wood grading IS subjective - very much so - and like opinions & buttholes will vary greatly from person to person."

This is absolutely what I believe. Tastes and hot buttons are an individual's alone, but there needs to be some latitudes wherein grading dwells.

I'm pretty much in agreement with the consensus here; not AAA and probably AA. Ruger did the same marketing of A-AA wood on the RSM and bumped things up a grade in their descriptions; Kimber does it, also.

IMO it's a nice rifle that I'd like to own.

This custom looks a little scary through the wrist area.

Yup.

* Sorry, don't like it at all.[/quote]

Post up your custom rifles.

I'm interested in your tastes in fine steel and walnut

*Within the past two years, I sold most all of my prized rifles; namely a Marlin J.B 1978 (N.I.B.) a Remington auto loader with gold inlay and exhibition grade stock, a Model 70 Featherweight 'Classic' .270 New Haven, and a few other items. All were new and not fired. I doubled, if not tripled my money. I have qualms about selling the J.B. Marlin but that's history. I currently have one item on Gunsamerica (N.I. B). The wood is clearly presentation grade. Why I purchased a new Winchester is beyond me.


* In fact, one of the board members of the Hess Corporation offered me $2800.00. I said 'No'.
[img]https://www.gunsamerica.com/9646316...ter-Pump-Action-Shotgun-N-I-B-2--197.htm[/img]

That would drive me crazy.

It's not too bad, seen worse.

Here are some pics of items I still have, not all but a few.

Can any tell me by looking at the below photo, if the area marked with the Red Arrow would be considered 'Sputtering' "Or", and is this of concern?

Since the beginning, I made mention of Stuttering and Sputtering, and there has been no response nor backlash from anyone. Well, it's about time that the factual term is 'Spaulting or "Spalting", yet not any have stated anything about this. This leaves many questions in my mind as to who knows what here: no disrespect implied. I would only believe that someone would have stepped up at this point and said 'something'! In all honesty, this facet was done purposely to weed out those knowing about wood. What would any think here?

The very first thing I noticed when I opened this thread. That would bug the hell out of me. I would have fixed it myself.

And if that’s AAA grade walnut, I’m a Chinese rocket pilot. I wouldn’t even call it AA.