English walnut-no chance!! I would put my money on it being American walnut which whilst being very attractive is nowhere near as expensive as European walnut.
Reading the thread below got me wondering- again. I would like to know the origin of the walnut used on the Air Arms springers. I posed this question to Air Arms last summer. They told me the name of the stockmaker, although I've since forgotten. A well known company in Italy. I e-mailed the stockmaker, but no reply. Does anyone know? Italian walnut, French walnut, or maybe English walnut ?
Take care, Scott
English walnut-no chance!! I would put my money on it being American walnut which whilst being very attractive is nowhere near as expensive as European walnut.
'It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others'.
I think it could be made by Minelli. (Italian walnut).
Weihrauch B&C HW95K, B&C HW35K, BAM B26-2 venoman custom, QB78 DL custom.
You ain't so big, you jus' tall, tha's all.
http://ukchineseairgunforum.myfreeforum.org/index.php
I'm certain your correct. Looking at this walnut, on my Pro Sport and TX200, I don't think it is American. There are orange-ish streaks and in the TX stock what looks like vericose veins or spider webs. Really unusual, but at the same time really nice.
Take care, Scott
I bow to other member's knowledge on this but I must admit to being surprised that on air rifle stocks anything other than American walnut is used in general anyway. Perhaps Air Arms push the boat out on stocks for export rifles.
I would've thought that English walnut is out of the question on price grounds as the good stuff goes for high end shotgun furniture.
Also bear in mind that the fact that the MAKER is Italian doesn't mean that Italian walnut is used.
'It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others'.
Perhaps it's from Turkey? You can get some very nice, well-priced walnut there. I believe the RWS Excalibre's stock was Turkish and that was astonishingly good.
Last edited by lionel; 04-02-2011 at 06:15 PM.
Founder & ex secretary of Rivington Riflemen.
www.rivington-riflemen.uk
I reckon we deserve it Ian as we always have to pay a premium when buying new anyway. That is certainly a nice bit of wood.
Andy
Member, the Feinwerkbau Sport appreciation Society (over 50's chapter)
http://www.rivington-riflemen.eu/ Andy, from the North !
I think the manufacturers save the best bits of wood to make l/h stocks for the better shooters.
You mean like l/h Tawnado
ATB
Ian
Founder & ex secretary of Rivington Riflemen.
www.rivington-riflemen.uk
aa stocks are made by minelli
Another example; I took my Beretta semi-auto to have the stock modified, the 'old boy' (in his late 70's, been around gun stocks all his life) stock-maker reckoned it was Turkish Walnut. So an Italian gun maker using Turkish Walnut (or whatever is cheapest for a non-oil finished, lacquered or polyurethane coated stock, in this case). Regards ... Geek
PauL H. - Shotgoon
Brownings: 1999 Ultra XS; 2004 B525 Field; 2010 Maxus Hunter: Air Arms 1998 Mk.2 Pro-Target, 2001 Mk.2 Pro-Sport & 2003 S400C
I can see the point. I see that Custom Stocks, in the U.K., use American walnut for thier stocks. However, the wood in my two examples of AA rifles doesn't even look like any thing native to the USA. Could be wrong, it's happened before. This walnut on my AA rifles looks too good to be American walnut.
Thanks for all the input. I'll try to e-mail Minelli once more.
Take care, Scott
Many of the walnut stocks on the TX200s I've seen aren't as attractive as some of the beech ones.
If walnut has no figuring it isn't particularly nice to look at. And straight grained walnut actually looks awful to me.
When you order a walnut stock and then go to collect it, you've really no idea what it's going to look like, and whether it will be worth the extra money.
I had two walnut stocked TXs. Both were pretty drab.
Arthur
I wish I was in the land of cotton.
Some of the stocks on sale today were only seedlings when this thread was started.
ATB
Ian
(Who still has the l/h ProSport and Tawnado stocked guns )
Founder & ex secretary of Rivington Riflemen.
www.rivington-riflemen.uk