Re-purposing High End Gunstock Blanks

It has been getting difficult to find good quality figured Walnut lately so a friend helped me out. He cuts and prepares wood for high end custom gunsmiths.
The other day he invited me out to his place to see the wood that he sells.
When we went into his wood barn I saw that he had a couple thousand figured Walnut gunstock blanks on the shelves.
Not to mention all the fore arm pieces and what hasn't been cut up yet. I felt like a kid in a candy store.
These are the three pieces I brought home.
The photos show the blanks dry, dusty and unsanded. But....they are really really good pieces.
The top one has areas of burl with bold crinkle curl in between. The other two have very tight curly figure and cool contrasting colors.
The bottom one is Royal Walnut and has very cool orangeish coloring.
I was going to start cutting them up today but a cold front just hit so it was just too cold to work outdoors.
These are 8 years old and have been dried without flaws.
It will be about a month before they are all cut up and back from getting stabilized.

They look pretty good as is; I can only imagine how they'd look once sanded, polished, etc.

First dibs on a blank from the top piece

The bottom piece looks beautiful. Can't wait to see these!

Some of this wood has been stabilized and is in the store now.

Burl Source said:

Some of this wood has been stabilized and is in the store now.

Click to expand...

Wow, huge difference. Having an experienced eye is a plus!