madsenshooter
09-17-2010, 12:29 PM
One with Italian walnut that the Armory sometimes used circa 1899-1903. I bought a American black walnut forearm. Tried a wide variety of stains, and mixing stains, but I couldn't get it to look anything like the Italian walnut which varies from yellow to orange. Then I contacted Dunlap Woodcrafts, talked to a fellow named Daniel. Daniel sent me some samples of European walnut and I picked the one that most closely matched the orange of my circa 1899 stock. They're going to turn me out a forearm from the wood the sample came from. It may not be perfect, but it'll look better than the black walnut. They're quite busy right now, restocking the Coast Guard's 03s, so I'm going to have to wait until November or so to get it, but I'll get back to this thread as things progress.