Woods for use in Knife handles *updated*

Greenberg Woods

Greenberg Woods

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Dec 27, 2013
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Highly Workable, Good choice for beginner wood workers/ handle makers.

*= wood could be stabilized
**= wood should be stabilized
***=wood MUST be stabilized for use in knives

*Bocote: A wood with a strange mix of characteristics. It is quite dense, nearing the density of some rosewoods but its hardness is tied with Hard maple. Bocote is a wood that is right on the border of needing stabilization and not. What I personally do is stabilize only the nicest pieces, and leave the rest. It has a lovely character and tight grained pieces exhibit a beautiful pattern of stripes and eyes. Bocote's eyes rarely compromise structure, but if a chunk is missing just fill it in with some super glue. This wood works easily and polishes well. One thing to be mindful of is that the wood is quite porous and bits of grit, metal dust and filings can get trapped in its pores. This is one wood where a super glue coating is always welcome. Do be careful though, lightly figured pieces are VERY boring. Use an extra thin saw to make sure both sides match.

**Maple: Figured maple is a longtime favorite of many knife makers, because it is incredibly easy to stabilize, work and dye. In all honestly maple is the easiest wood that makes an acceptable handle. Its figure is described in a few ways. Curly means the grain has "fold" that reflect light differently in a someone random pattern. This is most often seen in quarter sawn pieces “those cut radially to the grain,” often just called figured. Birds eye shows small circles in the grain resembling, you guess it, eyes. This one almost only occurs in hard maple, while all other types of figure are most prominent in soft maples. Tiger/ flame and fiddle back maple all refer to a very tight pattern of curls. Quilted maple is another type of figure at resembles water with a breeze. The folds seem to lap into each other and become quite complex, giving a very 3d figure. This one is most often found in the big leaf maple of the pacific west coast and shows up best when flat sawn.

*Ziricote: Not a commonly used wood, ziricote is none the less a gem. It is quite workable dispite its weight, a strong and rather stable dark colored wood known for its rare figure. Ziricote displays a figure known as spider webbing in which complex strands of nearly black wood criss cross the more grey heartwood. A pattern not seen outside incredibly figured Brazilian rosewood. This wood has a lot of sapwood that tends to come very close to the heart. I like to use stabilized pieces with the sapwood on. I don’t like to oil this stuff, as it darkens the heartwood way to much and yellows the sapwood. Just buff with pink scratchless.

Paduak: Now for some color! Paduak is common exotic often grown on plantations. It has a bright red/ orange tone with not a whole ton of figure. It is stable, strong and very workable. Be careful though, the dust is more toxic than average and the color fades. There are several major varieties of padauk, the one you will most likely find at your local lumber store is African paduak. My personal favorite however is Burmese paduak, which has a nice striated grain so you have something to look at when the color fades!

Purpleheart: This is a common wood for new makers, for the reasons that it can be exceedingly purple and is very cheap for an exotic "often close to the price of walnut". The coarse grain structure means it cannot be polished to a very high finish and the lack of figure and fading color means this is best suited to either a lower budget knife or a heavy work knife.

**Koa: Koa is known across the world as one of the curliest woods around. Personally I often use less curled pieces for the simple fact that curly koa is also costly as all holy hell. It works easily and is not to hard. Works very similarly to walnut

*Olivewood: A very attractive wood, Olivewood is a light yellow brown wood sith swirling blacks and deep browns that makes a very attractive handle. It is also popular due to its biblical and historical roots. There are several sources of good olivewood. In the middle east, Parts of north Africa, but also from Russia where a lovely white and black olivewood can be found.

Osage Orange: Also called Bois De arc, or bowwood, This wood grows like a weed through out the American south. Its very tough and can have a nice yellow orange color, though the color sadly doesn’t last very long, and once it fades the wood doesn’t have much to offer.

*Satinwood: Many many woods are sold under the satinwood name, but the two true Satinwood both comes from tropical Asia, mostly India And Sri Lanka. They are known for being hard, fine textured woods with an amazingly deep, metallic curl to them. They have been driven to near extinction the past, but some small plantations in sri lanka are starting to produce them again.

**Lacewood: Another common exotic, lacewood has some nice figure to it but beyond that is not too amazing. Easy workabilty and low price make this a good beginner’s choice. There are many woods that fall under the title of lacewood, the major ones are lacewood, a south American hardwood with very large medullar rays, Australlian lacewood, actually macadamia that has been quarter sawn, common sycamore, and the Australian silky oak.

Medium workabilty: Nothing wrong with these, but work slowly and be careful for burning!

Rosewoods: This needs a little explanation, so I will go over the rosewood you are most likely to see

Honduras rosewood: While not the best color, Honduras rosewood is a very hard and heavy rosewood that can show nice striation patterns. Over al the color tends towards a deep honey brown, but there is a lot of variation. I tend to use this one mostly in boxes and sheaths, but im also a bit of a wood snob.

East Indian Rosewood: This is a wood that is quite easy to find due to its use in guitars as a replacement for Brazilian rosewood. In my opinion, it outdoes Brazilian. East Indian has nice green, blended with deeper purple and black tones that tend to fold into themselves to make a simply stunning wood. Indian rosewood is on the softer side of rosewood though, so it may not be the best choice for a really hard use knife.

Next is Cocobolo. This is probably the wood most often used on custom knives, and with good reason. Cocobolo is incredibly hard, dense, and most of all, God dam beautiful. The wood has streaks of black, purple, yellow, red, orange, brown and white. It’s simply an amazing wood. It tends to form small eyes and other figure while staying quite strong. The wood is also highly water proof and even slightly antiseptic due to its insanely high oil content. Those oils can cause issues though. Always wear a mask, as the dust is very irritating and can cause rashes, wheezing, confusion and nausea. Cocobolo can be identified quite easily, as other rosewood smell very floral, cocobolo has a notable spicy scent that is unmistakable.

My favorite is kingwood. The strongest wood in the "classic" rosewood family, it is a more purple wood, with an amazing contrast of lighter purple and deep browns and blacks. It behaves a lot like cocobolo but the smell is much more floral and the woods striations are better defined.

Tulipwood is similar to kingwood in its striation, but it has white and bright pink instead! A real find, but expensive. The wood is one of the weaker rosewoods and due to its light color much more apt to pick up dust and swarf, making the handle stained. Not the best choice for an outdoor knife, though it does well in the kitchen. I have found women really like this wood.

Brazillian rosewood. I advise against using this stuff, for the simple reason it is to rare. Harvesting B.R has been illegal for several decades and any new sources are illegal. I received a board from a carpenter of some 50 years who has been storing it since the ban. Its also just not that amazing. Relatively dull tones of deep brown with a few reddish streaks, It just can’t compare to cocobolo.

This goes hand in hand with Bois De rose Is a Madagascar rosewood with a deep eggplant purple, but it doesn’t last. This stuff fades to black quick and is incredibly endangered. Just leave it.

A few notes on using rosewood. Always use a mask, as the dust is very irritating. After using rosewood, go straight to the shower to wash it off. The less time the oil is on your skin, the better. I find that showering with shampoo rather than soap helps, as shampoo is a surfactant rather than a soap and is much more effective at removing the oils from the skin.
When gluing rosewood, the common advise is to wipe with solvent before you glue to get a better bond. This is only half of it. I have been working with HUGE amounts of rosewood for several years, and this is what I find to be the best method. Wipe the wood with acetone about 5 minutes before you plan to glue. The fibers in the wood will create what’s called osmotic pressure, the same force that pulls water up a paper towel. This first wipe lowers the osmotic pressure in the wood fibers right next to the glue joint, and then wipe again just before you glue to get the strongest possible bond. I don’t advise making glue up handles with light woods like maple, as the oils of rosewoods can seep into nearby woods and stain them.

Pau Ferro: This wood is often sold under different names, Moredo, Bolivian rosewood, santos Rosewood, Peruvian rosewood and other. It is not technically a rosewood, but it is a hard, dense oily wood that makes me itch like crazy, so isn’t that close enough? It is popping up more and more as real rosewood become harder to find, but for the small sizes most knife scales are made, I like to spring for the real thing.

Laburnum: Called European rosewood, this is a tree found all throughout Europe, often called Golden Chain. The heartwood is somewhat narrow, but it has a pleasing purple black tone. Its a very tough wood, about 45 percent tougher than Oak. Its also rather oily so I advise treating it like rosewood. Some reports say the wood can be a strong irritant so wear a mask.

Bubinga: Known as a false rosewood, bubinga is a pretty wood that has many characteristics of rosewood for the more budget minded. It has a lot of color variation and can be light cream with pink red stripes, or a sort of red/ purple with darker streaking. It can however come in a striking figure known as waterfall bubinga. If you know a high end carpenter or turner, ask for scraps! It is quite hard so again, work slow.

Katalox: Another lesser known wood, Katalox is similar to ebony, but is much more purple. It is very heavy, considered one of the heaviest woods in the world. It is also very dense and while not very pricey, hard to find. This wood also tends to have a lot of sapwood, so you will either need to stabilize the whole thing or try to cut out small enough chunks of clear heartwood.

Grey Ironbark: Another hard as hell wood for our friends down under, Grey Ironbark is a characteristically tough wood with an almost walnut like appearance with more blueish purple tint to it. Its hard to find in the states, but they are imported relatively often.
 
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*Tiger and Zebra wood: while not related, I grouped these two together because of their similar characteristics. Both are heavy and while not too hard, their striated nature means they can be a little unpredictable to work if you are not experienced. Both show bands of darker, harder wood that appear in straight lines when quarter sawn and in wide swirling arcs when flat or rift sawn.

Boxwood: This is a bit of an old timey favorite. Boxwood is a very smooth looking wood with a yellow white tone. Its incredibly stable and makes a nice stand in for ivory or bone. Often called frozen butter.

*Holly Wood: Very difficult to search as you just get Hollywood the place, holly is a bright white wood that is often mistaken for bone. It is not often used on its own, but rather as a accent piece or in a glue up with ebony for the black and white effect.

Hard to work: These woods are difficult to work, hard, incredibly irregular grain or frequent tear outs. Precede with caution, but I promise it will be rewarded. Get ready for beauty

Ironwood: You knew it was coming. Ironwood is perhaps the best knifemaking wood. It is incredibly hard, nearly impossible to scratch, has a beautiful figure and is the most dimensionally stable wood currently known short of petrified wood! It has a beautiful pattern and color to it, so work slowly and with fresh belts or you will burn it. Its hardness is really what puts it on the list, as many people get frustrated, flip the sander to high and burn the hell out of their wood. unimportant side note though, it does smell EXACTLY like cat piss.

Gidgee: Also called Ringed gidgee, this is an interesting Australlian hardwood. Its incredibly hard like most Australian woods, but it is best known for having some of te most amazing metallic curls I have ever seen. While the really curly pieces can be difficult to find, it’s a real treat when you do find them. Timber joint Is the best source I know of for Gidgee.

Lignium Vitae: The wood of life. Lignium is widely considered one of the heaviest and hardest wood on earth. Its like working a brick, but nothing will last longer. It is so oily it can be self lubricating, tough as nails and takes a nice polish. The color is not outstanding, mostly greenish brown, but who cares! Its so damn heavy!

Dead Finish: Another hard Australian wood, this stuff is known for its fine reddish grain and abilty to take find curves and hold them well. While not a wood I have personally worked, my research tells me it behaves something like a fine rosewood.

Ipe: A bit of an ugly duckling that never grew up. Ipe is dirt cheap and hard, heavy and oily. While most of its physical properties make it an ideal choice for knife making, its hard, its heavy, its oily, it takes a polish, its just an ugly wood. Sad to say.

Wenge: Not too expensive, often used in furniture wenge has a great pattern to it and again can be either in neat rows or wild grain depending how its cut. It is listed here for its tendency to have tearouts, and the splitters just seem to always get infected. Be careful of what finish you chose, as any oil based fisnish will really darken up the wood. Some people like the ark look, but if you want to keep the woods natural contrast, go for a super glue finish.

Greenheart: An insanely hard and oily wood, it may be one of the stiffest woods in the world. its sometimes used in decking and often on boats because of its incredibly water resistance. It can be hard to find, but it makes an amazing handle for heavy use or marine use.

**Palm: Not a real hardwood, technically a monocot the wood of black and red palm is dark brown or white respectively, flecked with either black or red flecks "guess which is which". Look for pieces with more specks as these are what give the wood its strength. Its ery rare to find good widths of this stuff, as unlike hardwoods where the inside heartwood is strongest, palm woods inside are totally free of the darker flecks and very weak, and the outside layer is the living cells and is also weak, so the outside of the inside is the only useable part. “the way I explain this is imagine a solid cylinder inside a tube. The cylinder is the outer layer of the palm, the living part that is soft and useless. The inside of the cylinder is also unfigured and useless. You are looking for the outside of the inner cylinder” A real beauty when shined up, but again tear outs and splinters are an issue. This is another wood that should be stabilized. Wear goggles or i promise you will be out an eye.

Snakewood: Beautiful. Just beautiful. But a little devil. This stuff is hard, heavy and not all pieces have figure. Many sellers will sell you the whole log, because the center is often ruined and most of the log doesnt have figure. This is one wood where it is always best to buy by the scale. It also cracks like nothing else on the market. Go slowly and fill it in with superglue.

Bloodwood: is a close relative of snakewood and while cracking is not so much an issue, its hardness does make it difficult. Most pieces aren’t the deep blood/ scarlet red people want, but it makes a very solid handle and is available in good sizes, so what do I know.

Ebony: There are a surprising number of ebonies, but the most common used in knives is Gabon. The best Gabon is totally featureless black. Prettyyy much like plastic. Not my cup of tea. It also crack nearly as much as snakewood. Its not a game of if, but when.

Personally I prefer Macassar ebony. It has a little color, it’s not endangered and is less likely to shatter. This stuff smells like a musty gym. Ebonies take a very fine polish, but be careful of the heat working them can generate.

African blackwood: technically a rosewood, African blackwood is a great choice. Its more stable than ebony, harder, just as heavy and not endangered. If you want black, check this out. This stuff is harder than hell though. A lot of tests show that African blackwood is even harder than Lignum vitae. Tih wood tends to be black with subtle greyish grain running through it that personally, I find much more interesting the solid, featureless black of ebony. Same rules as rosewood apply.

Burlwood: Burls are inherently difficult to work, as the irregular grain means that they will not sand, saw or chisel away at an even rate. Go slow and check frequently.

***Buckeye burl: One of the easiest burls to work with once stabilized. It’s a very soft wood, and one of the few woods that naturally generates a grey color. It is often dyed and can make some out of this world handles

***Boxelder: A member of the maple family, this is another soft wood that is often stabilized and dyed. Very similar in terms of properties as buckeye burl.

***Redwood Burl: A very expensive burl due to the US goverments limits on harvesting. Redwood burl is graded on what kind of figure it has. The most sought after is often a lace figure, though flame and heavy curling are not far behind. Even when stabilized, redwood burl is quite soft. There is also a lot of competition from furniture makers and guitar makers for this wood, driving up the price.

Amboyna: Probably the most expensive wood you will buy. Amboyna Burl is actually from a few members of the paduak family, most often Narra Wood. While the trees themselves are quite common, the burls are very rare and fetch insane prices. They can be either red or gold depending on their origin and are one of the few burls that do not need any stabilization.

Thuya Burl: Once harvested all over the middle east, this root burl is now in short supply. It is a deep brown/ honey wood with lots of eyes, it is also well known for its pleasant almost lemony odor. It works nicely, but the twisting grain means you will need very sharp belts and bits to avoid deflecting in the work.

Rarer exotics of all types

Camel thorn: And interesting wood. Incredibly heavy and hard, it has a deep brown color flecked with black. Imagine a cross of wenge and balck palm. Its hard to find, though many wood turners are fond of it, so look to them for supplies

Pink Ivory: Super hard. Super rare. Super expensive. Super Pink. This stuff comes from South Africa and is pretty crazy. It can range from pale orange to neon pink and can even come curly! Be prepared to pay through the nose for the pink stuff though. While about 15 years ago this was all the rage, it has died down in popularity and cost. The pink and curly stuff is still quite expensive though

**Pistachio: Yes. That pistachio. It has an amazing figure that blends swirls of green, brown and black into an interesting form. Not crazy expensive, but it is pretty hard to find. Reasonably workable for exotic

***Black and white ebony: Ebony and ivroyyyyyyy. Kidding. A swirl of jet black and cream white, this stuff can be confusing to work. Suddenly you hit a white patch and the belt runs right through the wood. Go slow. Its also expensive so I hope you dont mess up. This wood is a pain, as drying it is very difficult. It reallyyyyy wants to crack on you. I leave mine in wax for at least 2 years before I mill them into slightly over sized blocks, leave them another few months and send them out to be stabilized so the light sections don’t pick up smudges left and right.

Verawood/ Argintine Lignium vitae: Lignium on a budget! This stuff is just like lignum but less so in every way. Not quite as hard, not quite as pretty, not quite as oily but way way cheaper! This wood also shows a very deep Chatoyancy, the kind of thing you see in tigers eye. It tends towards the green end of colors, though it can be mixed with a little brown and gold.

Marblewood: An interesting wood, this is one that is really hit or miss. A lot of the wood is simply unattractive, but nice pieces where the redish purple swirls enter the lighter brown sections make a good compliment to a Damascus handle, or a well done marble counter top in the kitchen.

Texas Ebony: One of the only exotics native to north America, Texas ebony is not a true ebony, but does grow in Texas! So the name is half right. Its hard, heavy and oily. Crotch cut pieces have a great figure and it also adds a little southern charm to any piece. Technically a member of the mesquite family, this stuff is found from mid mexico into southern texas and if often grown as an ornamental tree.

Black Ironwood: A small plant that only grows in parts of Floridas swamps. The heaviest wood on earth. I have never seen a real piece of it. If you happen to find some, please tell me! i would love to see!

Sandalwood: Almost never brought to market anymore, this stuff was famous for its strength and amazing scent. If you see it, save it. Its a real treasure.

Partridgewood: Sometimes sold as an ebony replacement, Partridgewood is a great wood in its own right. It is much like a very, very fine grained ebony. Its hardness mirror that of a high end rosewood like cocobolo or kingwood. It has lighter flecks in a much darker matrix and takes a high polish. Somewhat difficult to work on account of tearouts and sheer hardness.

Bulletwood: A seriously tough African timber, the color is not great, trending towards muted greens and greys, but the wood is incredibly tough and does well in am marine environment

Leadwood: Similar in working to bulletwood, Leadwood has a much greyer tone with streaking of greenish brown. It i slightly less oily which makes workingi t easier, but it is not as good in a marine environment.

Chakte Viga: A close relative of the famous Brazilwood, from which we get the name of Brazil itself, Chakte is a reddish orange wood with a great set of characteristics. Its very dense "sinks in water," quite tough, and its pleasing reddish tones last longer than any other wood I know of, even with a fair amount of direct sun exposure! Really an under rated wood.

Macacauba: Where the fuck am i finding these things? Rarely making it to Market, Macacauba is a relatively unknown wood, but this is going to change as new restrictions on classic exotics like rosewood fall into place. It has a lovely orange and red tone, similar to that of marbled paper. Its not the densisted wood on this list, but its about 20 percent heavier than oak, so its certainly respectable.

If you hate yourself.

This is a little thing for me and fellow wood nerds. Jarrah. There is nothing harder. Jarrah is not too pretty "though Jarrah burl can be" but it is hell on earth to work. It chews up sanding paper and belts, laughs at most saws and chokes the air with incredibly fine dust. Why is this even around?

If you have any questions about other woods, or would like a recommendation, please feel free to ask!
 
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Thanks for creating this list. I have started using wood recently, and this is helpful.
 
Sending along a very special THANK YOU!!!

In my knife collection, I am trying to accumulate as many different wood types as possible (in addition to overall knives with blade shapes I like) so long as the particular knife's wood has "character, depth, colors and grain." Trying to avoid dyed woods.

Your list and personal observations have become a tremendous resource for me!
 
Thanks for making this list. Ive been looking for a nice wood and this helped me avoid flooding this place with questions. 😅 I think im going to get some African blackwood.
 
I sure would like your input on these three blocks.

USDA tells me
1. Prosopis likely Prosopis Juliflora (I think mesquite)
2. Acacia (I think closest to Camel Thorn or Red Acacia)
3. Albizia (I think Lebbeck or Kokko is the closest)
Do you have any suggestions?
 
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The Prosopis would work, mesquite is some solid stuff. I would stick that on tough work knife if anything. Wouldn't really need stabilization.

The acacia could vary. Camel thorn is one of the hardest woods in the world and stabilizing it would be pointless, but koa is also an acacia. I would see if it crushes under the pressure of a finger nail, and try tapping one end with a peice of flat stock to see if it dents. If not, again a good working knife.

The Lebbeck, if used should be stabilized butt i don't know if its worth it. It can have some great ribbon figure but that one doesnt seem to have too much. Maybe if you are stabilizing a big load you could throw it in, but its mostly a mid- nice range furniture wood.
 
I wish that this one, and the previous one you did would be stickied. It took me around half an hour to find the one you did several months back. I wanted to read up on the walnut history that it had in it. I found it and learned quite a bit. Thank you very much. You are a boss.
 
If you have any questions about woods please ask. I didnt spend years reading about this stuff for it to just sit in my head.
 
what is your thoughts on stuff like wild cherry, wild plum, sassafras. I've been wondering if they would make good handles?
 
cherry and plum I would only use if i found a really nice curly piece of a burled chunk, and even then i would stabilize. Sassafrass is just a little too soft and a little to plain for my tastes.
 
Thanks for the post. It would be nice if this one and the previous one were combined and stickied.
 
I think im going to copy and paste all that sweet sweet walnut info into this one from Peter's comments
 
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"Looks like a tutorial on walnut is needed. Jurglans Regia also known as English walnut, French walnut, Moroccan walnut, Circassian walnut, Himalayan walnut, etc originated in Persia. It was popular enough that seeds have been found in a village in Switzerland that are over 9000 years old. It was a thick shelled walnut that people turned into a thin shell by gradually planting the shells of the thinner ones found. It is the standard eating walnut the earth over. The Romans were particularly fond of it and took it wherever they went (conquered). When first seen by the native English, they named it "weahl" nut meaning "strange" nut in old English. It is a white wood like maple when younger and then when reaching 15-18" diameter, black lines start in the center and work their way out. The white wood is not sap wood except near the bark.

It was brought to the Americas and is known here as English walnut. We have walnuts in America which includes American walnut in which only the sap wood is white. It is of two basic colors, red and gold. In California, there is the famous "Claro" (Spanish for "bright") walnut which resembles black walnut except for brighter secondary colors like yellow, red, black, and in Oregon, green and purple). The are many sub varieties and also include butternut. There is also the famed "Bastogne" walnut, also known as "paradox" and "bastard". It is a cross between English and black or Claro. It is exceedingly fast growing but produces few nuts. It will reproduce but no more than 4 times before becoming sterile. It is generally exceedingly dense, often has broken fiddle and generally a green tone. English always in production is grafted upon American, claro, or bastogne rootstock which is less receptive to bugs, disease, and rot. The areas where the grafts come together can be very beautiful as the two types of walnut are different colors and are often highly figured in that area."

"Claro walnut was originally limited to a small section of the California coast. Due to the beauty of the wood, planting expanded throughout California and Oregon. It is NOT used as an orchard wood as it is one of the thick walled shell varieties except for a few varieties of various walnuts that have been tediously selected to produce thin shells. They are not widely grown but do exist. Claro IS one of the rootstock walnuts used in Orchards as it is less susceptable to rot/bugs/disease. There is another type of Cal coastal walnut, one in Arizona and one in Texas. Butternuts are also a type of walnut.

American black walnut of both the red and golden variety were the choice of American gunmakers (maple & cherry in the flintlock days). Mid 20th Century, the beautiful Claro colors were the wood of choice. There is always a jump in hunting following a war and many custom makers started business following WW2. In those days, English walnut was not thought as beautiful as Claro and orchards taken out were BURNED! But then, the custom makers discovered that English worked much easier than Claro, black, and Bastogne. You could sometimes get 32 lines per inch checkering. If you took a knife to a long square edge of a blank, you would get one long sliver out of English and many chips out of the other varieties. You could use rougher tools and not get chips pulled out. As a result, the custom makers saved a huge amount of time (thereby making more profit) by using English. The bottom line was that they convinced magazine writers (generally a slow witted bunch) that it was, by far, the preferred wood for gunstocks and it went from the fireplace to the mantles. Today, the best pieces (in wet blanks) can go for many thousands of dollars.

By the way, Turkish walnut is NOT Circassian walnut which is actually Russian. They call it that for salability reasons. They also call the walnut they get from Enland, America, Pakistan, Bulgaria and elsewhere "Turkish Circassian". European walnut is all Jurglans Regia, although there are numerous varieties like Frankia (the current French walnut), Mayotte (Circassian), etc. UC Davis has an orchard of over 100 varieties of the 4 main types already mentioned.

Bastogne usually has a high per centage of broken fiddle and often has a beautiful greenish color. It is very dense and often used for big magnums. Like English, it can have a lot of wood that is white without being sap wood."

"Walnut either needs to be finished or stabilized. I make custom gunstocks so finishing is not a problem for me, but stabilizing is faster and easier. There is one problem with stabilizing walnut. Sometimes the finish color turns out to be a very ugly dark gray...sometimes with streaks. Until I discover why, I'll keep 15 sets of (once) gorgeous feather walnut scales which were RUINED by stabilizing. That is $1500 worth of scales ruined.

The best guess I have been given is that because the polymers used in stabilization are expensive, they are reused (and reused, etc). They darken. Some materials turn to crap when this is done. Walnut is the one with which I am familiar. Until I am satisfied that this won't happen to the next batch, I'll not try that again.
 
As for finishing, sand down to at least 220 grit. Finishes can be oil, polymers, epoxies, etc. each are treated a bit differently, but you can follow suggestions given for rifle stock finishes. One quick and easy one is spray can Deft. It is a lacquer. Apply a thin coat and it might dry in 4 seconds. Apply thickly and it will run and take a long time to dry. Tru-Oil is another good finish. Apply a coat and it might take 4 hours to dry. In a humid environ, it might take overnight. When dry, you can rub with 0000 steel wool then apply another coat. Do this until satisfied. Some finishes will appear to dry until the first hot day then turn sticky. Danish tung oil is one of these. It must be applied a drop at a time then thoroughly rubbed in. This is another finish one best not apply thickly. Linseed oil has an old suggestion: apply once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, once a year forever. It had no hardeners. Now some is called "Boiled Linseed oil". It is not boiled, it has hardeners added like Japan finish. PS: Do NOT boil Linseed oil. The boiling temperature and auto ignition temperature are very close together."

As for colors in Jurglans Regia (European walnut), This has a large variety in type and subtype. Current French walnut has the expected dark lines and mottle with the background color being yellow. This type is generally called Francotte. It is the most desired color by the majority of stock buyers. This was produced as best as I can determine starting around the beginning of the 19th century. I base this less on gunstocks and more on furniture. The wood that it replaced was a gray-backgrounded French. The best gunstock wood is added on after the tree reaches about 3 feet in diameter. English is rather slow growing so the Francotte was developed likely in the early 18th century. This was, or perhaps, is a common color now in England. Also seen in English rifles is a color of English that comes close to the golden American black walnut. Sometimes it has little in the way of the desired dark lines. English from other parts of the world seems a bit more like Circassian but with thinner dark lines (for the most part). The densest English (I use this as the general term for Jurglans Regia) seems to be from America and Australia and New Zealand. There are regional differences in density and color due to subtypes, climate, soil types, growing conditions and soil chemical composition.
 
The French are know to stress the trees tying them to one side or another to create fiddle in the wood. They have also been known to add various chemicals to the soil to promote various colors.

Older trees tend to gradually produce less nuts. As a result, American orchards tend to be removed now before the trees reach a size conducive to producing the best wood for gunstocks, etc. IRS laws were changed to promote clearing of older orchards and the planting of new. This has led to more and more wood being imported.

Size can vary considerably. Bastogne is the fastest growing. I knew of one 90 year old tree that was 12x15" in diameter and whose canopy covered two acres. Three branches were three feet in diameter 100' from the base of the tree where they touched ground and rerooted. English grows much slower. And it all depends on the local growing season, soil, water supply, etc. The big one was a few miles South of Redding, Cal.
 
Just Added 8 new woods. Im probably going to keep updating this as I find and use new woods, so check in from time to time if you really want to push the boundries of common handlewoods!
 
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