If you've done veneer work you know that two consecutive sheets out the same flitch, when bookmatched, will not be the same shade: one will be darker. One side of the veneer will catch, respond, and reflect light differently than the other.
As to the pictured blank, the first shot does remind me of claro's colors. Then again, there is some nigra coming out of Missouri that might make you scratch your head.
The gun pictured is stocked in Turkish? I would have thought CA english, as it looks more like that region than the typical color and figure coming out of the middle east
Wood identification exercises remind me of a book I read 40 years ago- R. Bruce Hoadley's Understanding Wood. He showed pics of species that looked nothing like the typical fare, and made the point that sometimes the only way to know is scientific analysis and the microscope. He poked a little fun at the wood experts that examine a sample and begin their scholarly discourse with, "Well, it looks like..." [i][/i]
Mike
You could be right, I bought it from a fellow who said he purchased it direct from Turkey and had it sent to his stock maker for approval. He had a high end restocking project and then sold the gun that was to be restocked and this blank became available. This is one case where the stock turned out looking pretty much like the blank did before turning.
