Interesting thread, five years ago I visited Hollands re a double rifle, they had a store room of blanks you could look at for weeks but as they said, first and foremost we want to know what you are going to do with the rifle, if it is a wall hanger they will put "exhibition" walnut on it but if you are going to use the thing they use normal or deluxe only, talking to the stockers there in the factory they said of "exhibition", too brittle and hard. Hollands X ray blanks before using them so I guess they know what they are on about. Some 3 1/2 years ago I visited Steve Dodd Hughes of this forum to spec out a single shot .30-06. I had seen some blanks on the internet, he suggested one of the 20 odd blanks he had in shop. I hope he won´t mind me saying but I was underwhelmed but when you have worked with the stuff long enough you can see what will come out. He was right. It came out magnificently (according to Hollands NY who are shipping it to London for me) so my advice is never buy any wood on the net. Speak to someone who really knows what he is doing and go with him, best, Mike
