What grade do you think this is??

[Brambles]

I have had this piece of Claro Walnut for about 5 years now, bought it out of Arizona, does anyone have any idea how to grade this baby.

What are your thoughts, looks pretty nice to me, don't know what the hell I'm going to do with it I'm kind of on a lightweight kick right now and If I remember correctly this baby weighs about 14 lbs

 

[Mauser98]

I have had this piece of Claro Walnut for about 5 years now, bought it out of Arizona, does anyone have any idea how to grade this baby.

What are your thoughts, looks pretty nice to me, don't know what the hell I'm going to do with it I'm kind of on a lightweight kick right now and If I remember correctly this baby weighs about 14 lbs

That looks like a pretty nice piece of wood. Apparently, Claro is one of the heavier walnuts but weight is also dependent on wood density, moisture content, etc.

I wouldn't worry to much it weight as a blank seeing as how about 90% of the wood will end up on the shop floor.

IIRC, the last stock I did finished up at about 40 oz. It was very dense, 1/4 sawn Black walnut.

 

[stocker]

Brambles: Your pictures are too dark mostly to see much detail. My impression is that the stock blank falls somewhere in the " high/low-medium" class. I have a piece of Claro that I bought from Roberts in 1972 that shows a lot more figure than that. I paid $40.00 for a semi finished then. Wish I could still get that much wood for that kind of money. However I spent two hours in their storeroom selecting it.

The grain in the fore end on yours appears to turn down from the top line. That is a definite minus to me , not withstanding that it will make quite a pretty stock.

I think it comes down to price. If the price is right for you there are ways to deal with the grain flow that are somewhat dependable but no guarantee.