“Fortunately, we can all agree on whether a piece of walnut is good or not – we just can’t agree on what we should call it.” “There are no official grades, no universal standards” laughs Steve Turgay. Wood is traded in US dollars or Euros, and a decent tree can bring in useful income for families living in an area where poverty is rife. These walnut trees are readily cultivated for their fruit in this region, and government backed schemes are in place to ensure that more trees are being planted than felled. This may sound like a sustainability nightmare to some, but it’s worth pointing out that many of these old trees have actually reached the end of their natural lifespans. Production costs are high and the supply chain can only get more restricted.” “Because we’re only interested in trees more than 150 years old that have their rootstock intact, quantity is very limited. An added problem is that this is a dangerous conflict area where terrorist activity and airstrikes have been commonplace over the past decade. The soil here gives Turkish walnut its beautiful colour, and the cycle of harsh winters and hot summers provides the intense figuring. “MdS sources premium walnut from the Kurdistan region, which is where south east Turkey meets Iraq. Those left are high up, difficult to reach or both.” The best walnut is found in a comparatively small mountainous area in south east Turkey, but most of these ancient trees have already been harvested. “Secondly, the older that the tree is, the more characterful the figuring, so all these old trees have been in great demand over the past few decades. Matched blank pairs are particularly scarce. Although no timber is wasted, even the best tree cannot yield that many quality blanks. “Timber found where the roots join the trunk makes the finest stocks because the roots are more figured and the trunk is straight-grained. “The scarcity issue is two-fold,” he explains. He’s supplied many top gunmakers in the UK, and works closely with John Jeffries. Steve Turgay has imported modest quantities of fine walnut for more than 20 years. It’s scarce, and becoming increasingly so. There’s a very good reason why top-grade walnut is so expensive. Walnut is by far the most popular choice of material across most product ranges.” “They have teams of skilled craftsmen, capable of the most intricate handwork, working alongside robots and CNC machines. “It’s an incredible set-up,” says Robert. Robert Frampton, Brand Director at GMK, is a regular visitor to the MdS factory in north east Italy. Every gun from the humble Silver Pigeon and up is fitted, or can be fitted, with a walnut stock. It sources and manufactures stocks for the entire Beretta group, the majority of which are walnut.Īt any one time it has an inventory of 450,000 blanks sitting in environmentally controlled storage awaiting manufacture. At the other end of the scale sits Meccanica del Sarca (MdS), a subsidiary of Beretta. Manuel deals in relatively small quantities of walnut for a select few. We only work with Turkish walnut, which is the very best.” “The combination of beauty, consistency, strength and ease of working makes it impossible to beat. “In my opinion, walnut is the best wood for stocks and fore-ends,” says Manuel. Manuel’s stocks flow from organic curve to organic curve, they are highly functional pieces of high art that just beg to be handled. His reputation has built him an impressive international clientele, most of whom value two things over all else – fit and aesthetics. Manuel Ricardo has been handcrafting made-to-measure gun stocks from his workshop just north of Porto for more than 30 years. It’s easy to work and takes fine chequering exceptionally well. It resists warping, suffers little shrinkage and isn’t prone to splitting, which is important when working with something as lively as a shotgun. Its exquisite, heavy figuring may be stunning to look at, but its beauty is more than skin deep. Walnut possesses a number of qualities that make it the ideal material for gun stocks. A craftsman at work on a stock in the Perazzi factory in Italy
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