HW 95N Walnut Stock
- Thread starter kingfisher61
- Start date
Sorry to see and hear this John. It's been my experience over the years that some manufactures will stain there walnut stocks to make them all look similar so that they match the pics on there websites.
The Huben K1 I just purchased has the same scenario. Brown stain over walnut. I've stripped it down revealing some nice grain. I'll refinish with Maccari RLO and be happy.
Yours may have an oil, top finish, but it sure looks stained to my eye.
Good luck and hope AOA will do you better.
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Scott
I'm certain that your Huben looks gorgeous after you put your touch on it.
I believe that you are correct to a point. It's obvious from viewing the other 95N that I posted for comparison that they indeed have finer examples available. AOA seems to be suffering from too much time selling and not enough time servicing it's customers.
How much effort does it take to find something special for a customer who requests it? Personally, I go out of my way for all of my customers. But, I'm just a little guy who needs every one of his customers. AOA seems to care less.
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If you didn't pay extra, why would you expect them to treat you special and spend extra time selecting a stock especially for you?
Hell I gave up even getting them to answer the phone.
Hell I gave up even getting them to answer the phone.
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It sure looks like they used the same tinted muddy finish that they use on their beech stocks, which is a shame. That may be a decent piece of wood if it would have been finished differently. But any other kind of finish takes more work and time to do well, so there's that.
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“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.” –Forrest Gump.
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The stock in post 5 is attractive but the unusual coloring may be spalting. Or it could just be unusual wood. Spalting is decayed and weakened wood. In the buttstock it is probably not a problem but in the handgrip and forward weakened wood is not at all desirable. I hope that is not what it is. If it is the same hardness as the plain areas then it is not spalted. Figure in general is desired in the buttstock. In a powder burner you do not want figure supporting the action because it is not as stable.
Walnut is often steamed during drying to try and darken the sap wood. Steaming makes walnut a dull grey color and eliminates any natural purple highlights. Walnut is often stained to even the color out because people complain if it is not all the same color. Walnut sapwood is naturally white like maple (or beech). I wish furniture makers and gunstock makers would not stain wood to negate it's natural colors but at least in part they are doing what other customers want.
It is possible the salesperson at AoA did not know what the customer wanted. It would probably have been a good idea to text him (or her) a picture. But they may have all been straight grained relatively unattractive walnut.
The most interesting wood comes from crotch areas and the stump of the tree. Sawyers will often not cut up the stump because of potential damage to their blades from embeded rocks. I saved some wood from the stump of a large oak tree that fell over in my yard and made this stock for my Prod from it. I do not have big enough pieces for a stock for my other guns. Some of this wood is spalted. None of it is stained. It is all from the same tree.
Walnut is often steamed during drying to try and darken the sap wood. Steaming makes walnut a dull grey color and eliminates any natural purple highlights. Walnut is often stained to even the color out because people complain if it is not all the same color. Walnut sapwood is naturally white like maple (or beech). I wish furniture makers and gunstock makers would not stain wood to negate it's natural colors but at least in part they are doing what other customers want.
It is possible the salesperson at AoA did not know what the customer wanted. It would probably have been a good idea to text him (or her) a picture. But they may have all been straight grained relatively unattractive walnut.
The most interesting wood comes from crotch areas and the stump of the tree. Sawyers will often not cut up the stump because of potential damage to their blades from embeded rocks. I saved some wood from the stump of a large oak tree that fell over in my yard and made this stock for my Prod from it. I do not have big enough pieces for a stock for my other guns. Some of this wood is spalted. None of it is stained. It is all from the same tree.
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Walnut is often stained to even the color out because people complain if it is not all the same color. Walnut sapwood is naturally white like maple (or beech). I wish furniture makers and gunstock makers would not stain wood to negate it's natural colors but at least in part they are doing what other customers want.
THIS
seems to be the case, and is very unfortunate. Give me natural unstained walnut every time!Upvote 0
Those are the eBay pictures of my .25 Tomahawk. I saw it and it was screaming to me "HELP ME!" I knew it had some figure hiding in there and placed a first bid. Didn't even know what an awesome .25 this is. NOBODY else bid! SCORE! Couple days later it showed up and I got busy on it. Love to shoot this gun. FTT's @ 725 fps.
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Hatsan does the same thing with their Turkish Walnut stocks. I've refinished a few and found some very nice figuring under whatever junk they spray on them.
In the case of a $200 rifle, ok no problem, but for over $600, I'd expect way better just like he did.
In the case of a $200 rifle, ok no problem, but for over $600, I'd expect way better just like he did.
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Basically received different wood, but not any better figure upgrade. I would feel a bit let down also.
Not sure if the distributors is at fault except the part about picking one out. This could have something to do with the way HW purchases their grade of wood... Guess that will be answered as more samples are posted. I have seen a few nice HW100's though.
I say the above because a lot of old tommy and walnut patriots had very-very bland stocks on average. The .25 tommy that was posted does have some figure which helped in that final turnout (nice) . Grades were surely not as nice as say AA or Daystate samples on average. maybe they pay more......
Not sure if the distributors is at fault except the part about picking one out. This could have something to do with the way HW purchases their grade of wood... Guess that will be answered as more samples are posted. I have seen a few nice HW100's though.
I say the above because a lot of old tommy and walnut patriots had very-very bland stocks on average. The .25 tommy that was posted does have some figure which helped in that final turnout (nice) . Grades were surely not as nice as say AA or Daystate samples on average. maybe they pay more......
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All Walnut blanks are not going to be equal. This is production not custom one offs, you will only get what they were supplied, some will look much better than others, same with custom stocks. I have yet to win the wood lottery, even with my custom stocks, maybe next time.
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Hmm, idk John. Looks like there is some striping going on under there. Too bad it appears to have the usual brown stain covering in up.
Hey, if you like the darker brown, this may be the one,,,,,,,for now
Hey, if you like the darker brown, this may be the one,,,,,,,for now
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It's sure better than the last one. I'd be happy with it if it were me, I like the striping. Thinking there won't be many like the fine example we saw.
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It's got some chatoyance and the grain goes thru on both sides. It's nice and not overstated. Would probably look better if refinished but that's more work on your end.
If it were me, I'd probably buy a used one and get a stock made from CustomstocksUk.
If it were me, I'd probably buy a used one and get a stock made from CustomstocksUk.
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Usually if they are staining on top of any wood you can remove the action or the butt pad and it will be obvious that stain was applied. I would bet AOA buys a limited number of the 95Ns and that may well have been the best they could do. The only advantage this stock might have over beech is that walnut is typically lighter in weight.
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I'd strip it and reshape the IMO awful ambi cheek piece. Or even remove it altogether. Then it would at least have a standard Monte Carlo like the original HW95L I prefer. I just couldn't live with that angular cheek piece. Given the fact I can easily improve the factory finish. Why not?
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