Interestingly enough I wonder why of all the trees that grow Walnut is a favourite for gunstocks , surely there must be other choices in this wide world?
Gunmakers and stockers have had hundreds of years to try using many different woods. The tried and true near universal choice is Juglans Regia, or English walnut, whenever it is available. No other wood has so many of the desirable attributes of proper strength, weight, ease of machining, carving, and checkering, and overall beauty.
In many cases, the choice of wood has been governed by what is readily available. Early American gun makers used a lot of Red maple, sugar maple or wild cherry. Black Walnut is a very good wood that can have spectacular grain and figure, but stock makers will still prefer the English (or French, Turkish, Circassian, Italian, or whatever other names the same species goes by) because it is generally easier to carve or machine, and takes checkering better. Most American gun makers used Black Walnut simply because it was and still is cheaper and more readily available here. Many other species have been used for gun stocks including mesquite, beech, birch, myrtle, yama, bubinga, ash, mahogany, and others.
I have one field grade Syracuse Lefever that has a very unusual butt stock and forend. It looks 100% Lefever in almost every respect except for the fact that it clearly is not stocked in English walnut. It looks to me like very close grained quartersawn white oak, which is commonly used for flooring and whiskey and wine barrels. It has no serial number under the trigger guard as original factory stocks do. I've thought about replacing it, but I have wondered if it might be a "Lunch Box Special" that was "appropriated" by a Lefever employee in pieces, and stocked at home with whatever wood happened to be available. Whoever did the work was no stranger to gunstock making, but the choice of wood is a mystery.
